World Notes

Women's rights triumphed when three immigrants won a sex-discrimination case last week against the British government. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that a five-year-old immigration law is discriminatory in that it permits men who are legal residents, but not citizens, to bring their wives into the country, while denying the same privilege to women residents whose husbands are still overseas.

The ruling by the Strasbourg-based court is not legally enforceable, but British Home Secretary Leon Brittan promised that the immigration law would be changed. The government had argued that the law was useful in controlling the influx of immigrant workers during a period of high domestic unemployment. The court's finding could affect as many as 2,000 couples a year. The women who brought the suit are Arcely Cabales from the Philippines, Sohair Balkandali from Egypt and Nargis Abdulaziz from Malawi. Ironically, they will not be affected: in the four years since their legal action got under way, they have become British citizens. Their husbands are now living with them, legally, in Britain.