Credit: ECtHR
The European Court of Human Rights has released six new factsheets summarizing its jurisprudence on the topics of: hunger strikes in detention, migrants in detention, domestic violence, elderly persons, persons with disabilities, and political parties and associations. The factsheets provide valuable insights into the kinds of issues being raised before the Court, direct practitioners to key cases and decisions, and help them identify the articles of the European Convention on Human Rights most implicated by particular types of human rights violations.
The factsheets, organized by subject area and comprising both pending and final decisions, address some of the issues most prominently and frequently brought before the European Court. In addition to those recently released, the Court has published several dozen others factsheets on topics related to children and parents, criminal law, data, discrimination, the European Union, expulsion, health, life, opinions and information, prison, work and business, and aspects of the Court’s jurisdiction. The factsheets are a practical entry point for practitioners to familiarize themselves with important case law, follow the differing lines of reasoning within a debated topic, and understand recent developments and major shifts in the Court’s jurisprudence.
Hunger Strikes in Detention
The issue of hunger strikes in detention is especially timely and much discussed in the field of criminal justice. The Court’s factsheet covers many issues related to hunger strikes, including prisoners’ deaths following hunger strikes, force-feeding, interim measures by the Court to put an end to hunger strikes, mass hunger strikes and the use of force by the authorities, and the re-imprisonment of convicted persons suffering from Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome. See ECtHR, Factsheet – Hunger Strikes in Detention (June 2014).
States’ treatment of hunger-striking detainees is divisive. Significantly, the European Court has held that force-feeding constitutes torture when there is no medical evidence that the applicant’s life or health is in serious danger. Conversely, the Court has found that “a measure which is of therapeutic necessity from the point of view of established principles of medicine cannot in principle be regarded as inhuman and degrading.”See ECtHR, Nevmerzhitsky v. Ukraine, no. 54825/00, Judgment of 5 April 2005, paras. 94-95. Force-feeding must, however, be carried out in a manner that complies with Article 3 (humane treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights. Id.
Migrants in Detention
Another important issue in human rights law today, for which the European Court has published a factsheet, is the protection of the rights of migrants in detention. The Court has held that “the confinement of aliens, accompanied by suitable safeguards for the persons concerned, is acceptable only in order to enable States to prevent unlawful immigration [and] must not deprive asylum seekers of the protection afforded by [the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights].” ECtHR, M.S.S. v. Belgium and Greece, no. 30696/09, Judgment of 21 January 2011, para. 216. The factsheet on migrants in detention summarizes the Court’s many restatements of the scope of safeguards required of States regarding migrant’s deprivation of liberty, restrictions on migrants’ freedom of movement, detention conditions, and challenges to the lawfulness of detention.
Domestic Violence
The European Court of Human Rights has recognized that domestic violence is a broad, complex issue that touches on many rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court’s factsheet examines how domestic violence implicates an array of rights, including Article 2 (life), Article 3 (humane treatment), Article 6 (fair trial), Article 8 (private and family life), and Article 14 (non-discrimination).
The Court has held that “the issue of domestic violence … is a general problem which concerns all member States and which does not always surface since it often takes place within personal relationships or closed circuits.” ECtHR, Opuz v. Turkey, no. 33401/02, Judgment of 9 June 2009, para. 132.. Given that domestic violence most often occurs in the private sphere of life and affects 15-71% of women, it is particularly significant that the Court has found violations to have taken place where the State failed to adequately investigate complaints of domestic violence and protect against domestic violence. See ECtHR, Factsheet – Domestic Violence (June 2014), 2-4.
Elderly Persons
Like domestic violence, issues affecting elderly persons implicate several articles in the European Convention on Human Rights, and also touch on rights contained in Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. In its new factsheet, the Court provides excerpts from cases that discuss Article 2 (life), Article 3 (humane treatment), Article 6 (fair trial), Article 8 (private and family life), Article 10 (freedom of expression), Article 41 (just satisfaction), and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention (protection of property), in the context of medical and institutional care, pension schemes, deportation, detention and confinement, length of proceedings concerning social benefits, and other topics. See ECtHR, Factsheet – Elderly People and the ECHR (June 2014).
Notably, a Chamber judgment declaring a violation of Article 8 for the State’s failure to provide “sufficient guidelines” on the right to assisted suicide has been referred to the Grand Chamber for a second opinion, at the government’s request. See ECtHR, Gross v. Switzerland, no. 67810/10, Judgment of 14 May 2013. The Grand Chamber’s decision is likely to be highly anticipated due to the controversial nature of the issue of assisted suicide.
Persons with Disabilities
The new factsheet on persons with disabilities identifies the wide range of rights in need of protection for individuals living with disabilities. Article 1 of the Convention requires States to secure the enumerated rights and freedoms to “everyone within their jurisdiction,” including persons with disabilities. European Convention on Human Rights, art. 1.
In addition to rights relating to physical access, treatment in detention and institutions, and non-discrimination, the Court has also dealt with legal personality and autonomy of persons with disabilities, such as in the context of legal capacity , guardianship, parental and marital rights, and assisted suicide. The factsheet addresses each of these and other issues.
Political Parties and Associations
Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) applies to political parties and associations, and is the subject of extensive review by the European Court of Human Rights. Specifically, the new factsheet outlines the Court’s approach to the role of political parties, the prohibition of political parties, and the dissolution of political associations. See ECtHR, Factsheet – Political Parties and Associations (June 2014).
Particularly interesting is the Court’s attempt to delineate circumstances in which States may prohibit or dissolve political associations without violating Article 11. For example, the Court found no violation of Article 11 when Spain declared illegal, dissolved, and liquidated the assets of the Herri Batasuna and Batasuna political parties because the State had reasonably concluded that there was a link between the parties and the ETA, a terrorist organization. ECtHR, Herri Batasuna and Batasuna v. Spain, nos. 25803/04 and 25817/04, Judgment of 30 June 2009. The Court came to the opposite conclusion in HADEP and Demir v. Turkey, finding that calling the counter-terrorist efforts of Turkish security forces a “dirty war,” did not encourage “violence, armed resistance or insurrection” and thus did not justify dissolution of HADEP, the opposition party, by the Turkish Constitutional Court. ECtHR, HADEP and Demir v. Turkey, no. 28003/03, Judgment of 14 December 2010.
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights is a regional human rights judicial body based in Strasbourg, France. It is charged with deciding complaints submitted by individuals and States concerning alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition to making available the thematic factsheets discussed here, the Court also offers State-specific Country Profiles and Statistics on alleged violations, organized by State and Article of the Convention, and on the Court’s caseload.
For more information, see the European Court of Human Rights section of the IJRC Online Resource Hub.