Month: September 2021

R.B. v. Estonia: The ECtHR calls for less strict procedural rules for children’s testimony

Guest Blogger Article 3, Article 8, Best interests of the child, R.B. v. Estonia

By Elena Patrizi, PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Law and affiliated with the Centre for Children’s Rights Studies, University of Geneva, Switzerland  

On 22 June 2021, the Third Section of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter: ECtHR) released its judgment on the case of R.B. v. Estonia, a case concerning the effectiveness of a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of a 4-year child by her father. The case was brought before the ECtHR by the child, R.B., who alleged a violation of her rights under Articles 3 (Prohibition of torture) and 8 (Right to respect of private and family life) of the European Convention of Human Rights (hereinafter: ECHR). The father, the alleged perpetrator, was acquitted by the Estonian Supreme Court, which excluded decisive evidence on the ground that it was obtained in breach of procedural rules.

The ECtHR established that the Estonian justice system failed to be child-friendly as it did not take into account the child’s particular vulnerability and corresponding needs. On the contrary, it strictly applied the rules concerning the children’s testimony, which do not distinguish between children and adults. This resulted in a violation of the two provisions. As I will argue in this blog post, the judgment is important for reminding the contracting states that, although they have the difficult task of dealing with very sensitive cases, they can adequately protect the rights and needs of children through an effective child-friendly justice system.

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J.L. v. Italy: A survivor of trivictimisation – Naming a Court’s failure to fully (recognize and) acknowledge judicial gender-based revictimisation

Guest Blogger Article 8, J.L. v. Italy, Sexual Violence, Stereotypes, Women's Rights

By Margarita S. Ilieva, a strategic equality/human rights litigator with extensive experience in  negative stereotyping.

The violent misogyny case of J.L. c. Italie (27.05.2021) is one of few in which the Court expressly addressed revictimisation (neglectful/actively injurious treatment of a survivor by those expected to address the original harm). Prior cases whereby this concept was integrated in Convention law include N.Ç. c. Turquie (9.02.2021) and A and B v. Croatia (20.06.2019). In Y. v. Slovenia (28.05.2015), the Court dealt with protection against repeat victimization (by the original perpetrator), not yet incorporating ‘secondary victimisation’ (by insufficiently heedful domestic judges).

The earlier cases concerned (severe) sexual predation of girl children. In the high-profile J.L., it was a young woman who survived gang-abuse. An art. 8 violation was found, since the appeals court’s reasons for acquitting the accused were sexist. The Court termed this ‘secondary victimisation’ breaching the State’s positive duties.

Yet, did the Court robustly address J.L.’s multi-layered revictimisation? Let’s examine the Court’s credibility on behalf of a woman, to return the gesture to tiers of (male-dominated) judges preoccupied with (de)constructing the victim’s credibility. The ECtHR judges (who problematized J.L.’s credibility) are predominantly male. Conversely, two out of three at the appeals court were women – a bleak symptom of internalized patriarchy.

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The Human Rights Centre submitted a joint third party intervention in a case before the ECtHR against Belgium concerning a ban of religious symbols in public high schools

Guest Blogger Freedom of Religion, Mikyas v. Belgium, Right to Education, Third Party Intervention

Cathérine Van de Graaf is a research fellow at the Academy for European Human Rights Protection (University of Cologne) and affiliated researcher at the Human Rights Centre (Ghent University).

The Human Rights Centre of Ghent University (Belgium) submitted a joint third party intervention (TPI) before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR or the Court) in the communicated case of Mikyas and others v. Belgium together with the Equality Law Clinic of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.[1] In this case, the Court is asked to rule on the impossibility for two Muslim girls to wear the headscarf in Belgian public high schools. In our submission, we highlight various elements of the legal and societal context of the case and suggest possible pathways of legal reasoning under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR or the Convention) that we hope may be relevant to both lawyers and Judges working on this case as well as for the further development of case law.

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