EIN Briefing on Domestic Violence in Russia and Prison Conditions in Ukraine

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EIN held its latest civil society briefing on 23rd November 2020. Due to the Covid-19 crisis, the event was held online.

 

The briefing focused on the following cases:

1)    Volodina v. Russia, concerning domestic violence and discrimination against women in Russia, presented by Vanessa Kogan, Stichting Justice Initiative Executive Director.

2)    The Nevmerzhitsky case, concerning overcrowding and poor material conditions of detention, the inadequacy of medical care in detention, and lack of effective remedies in all these respects, presented by Hugues de Suremain, European Prison Litigation Network, and Gennadiy Tokarev, Kharkiv Human Right Protection Group

You can find a summary of their Recommendations on these cases here.

 

The Volodina case

 

This case concerns domestic violence, including grave physical and mental suffering from physical and psychological abuse of the applicant over two years by her ex-partner. The applicant submitted over eight complaints to the authorities over two years: no attempt to protect the applicant from further violence or to open criminal proceedings against the (known) perpetrator.

 

The ECtHR found a violation of the applicants right to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Prohibition of torture and cruel treatment). The Court stated that authorities had failed to uphold their obligations to establish a legal framework to prevent the known risks of ill-treatment and to carry out an effective investigation into allegations of ill‑treatment. (para. 78-101). The Court also found a violation of the applicant's Article 14 (Prohibition of discrimination) right. “The Russian authorities failed to create conditions for substantive gender equality that would enable women to live free from fear of ill-treatment or attacks on their physical integrity to benefit from the equal protection of the law.”(para. 132)

 

While ECtHR has judged this case, the Committee of Ministers is not monitoring the implementation of the ECtHR judgment of the case.

 

The presentation was given by Vanessa Kogan, Stichting Justice Initiative Executive Director. You can find the video of their briefing below.

 SJI recommends that the Volodina case should be examined by the Committee of Ministers under the enhanced procedure, at least every six months. Also, individual measures should focus on effective ex officio criminal investigations, and that general measures should aim to eliminate current specific shortcomings.

 

Relevant documents

 

The Nevmerzhitsky Group case

The Nevmerzhitsky Group concerns poor conditions of detention, specifically, overcrowding and poor material conditions, the inadequacy of medical care, and lack of effective remedies in all these respects. The ECtHR has stated that the lack of proper medical treatment in Ukrainian prison is a structural issue, and no effective remedy is available. 

 

The presentation focused on issues related to a lack of healthcare in prison facilities. The lack of access to healthcare in Ukrainian prisons is a situation of extreme urgency. There are several issues at the core of this prison crisis, inconsistent health policy, a health system facing major systemic and structural difficulties and the inefficient management of infectious disease, and lastly difficulties exacerbated by the COVID-19. 

 

The Committee of Ministers is monitoring the Nevmerzhitsky group and will resume its examination at their 1390th meeting (December 2020) (DH).

Presentation by Hugues de Suremain, European Prison Litigation Network, and Gennadiy Tokarev, Kharkiv Human Right Protection Group. You can find the video of their briefing below.  

In particular, the presenters called on the Committee of Ministers to request the Government of Ukraine to:

  • urgently fill the vacancies for health care workers and the need for equipment and medicines;

  • clarify as soon as possible the chain of responsibility within the medical units and designate those responsible for the quality of care;

  • initiate, possibly in the form of a consensus conference, a transparent process for the transfer of prison medicine to the Ministry of Health, comprising a national debate including civil society and international organizations.

    In addition, EPLN and KHPG also called on the Committee of Ministers to:

  • separate the examination of groups of cases concerning health care in prison from those concerning material conditions of detention, as the necessary reforms involve distinct responses, actors and time frames;

  • act with the Directorate-General for Human Rights to ensure that prison health issues are given greater priority in cooperation programs and find synergies with relevant EU instruments.

 

Relevant documents