Legal Journals

ECHR Finds Violations

By pkher

The European Court of Human Rights recently decided Stoica v. Romania in favor of a minority applicant, finding violations of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The applicant, of Roma origin, alleged that he had been racially discriminated against and then brutally beaten by state police officials. He also alleged that at the domestic level, the case had been insufficiently investigated and racial prejudice resulted the decision of state authorities to not prosecute the police official who beat him. Consequently, the applicant approached the European Court for remedy. Considering factors such as insufficiency of evidence and investigation, minority and severe disability of the applicant, and possible lack of good faith of the prosecutor, the Court held that there was a violation of article 3 and article 14 of the Convention.

For further details on this case, click here.

Full post as published by Harvard International Law Journal Digest on March 07, 2008 (boomark / email).