Moldova breaches ECHR by failing to prevent domestic violence

In the case of Eremia v Moldova, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that the State’s failure to protect the applicants in a domestic violence case violated the victim’s rights under Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment) and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) as well as her daughters’ rights under Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Ms Eremia was the victim of sustained abuse at the hands of her husband, a police officer, who regularly beat her in front of her two daughters when drunk. The daughters’ psychological well-being was adversely affected by witnessing the abuse. Ms Eremia sought the State's assistance on a number of occasions. Though her husband was fined and she was granted a protection order, it didn't prevent further abuse. She applied for divorce but could not get her case dealt with urgently. On one occasion police officers urged her to withdraw a complaint, arguing that her daughters’ future career prospects would suffer if their father had a criminal record. Despite substantial evidence of abuse, criminal proceedings against her husband were suspended for a year, to be reopened if he committed another offence in that time.

The European Court of Human Rights noted that Moldova did have a legislative framework in place to deal with domestic violence and had at least fined Ms Eremia's husband and granted a protection order. However, as these measures were ineffective, the Moldovan authorities' failure to protect Ms Eremia violated her Article 3 rights. The Court also found that the State had violated her daughters’ rights to privacy and family life (Article 8).

The Court also held that there had been a violation of Article 14, which prohibits discrimination, in conjunction with Article 3. The applicant claimed that the State failed to implement the legislative protections for victims of domestic violence on the basis of preconceived ideas of women’s roles in the family. In particular it was noted that when the applicant sought the help from social services she was urged to reconcile with her husband as she was “not the first nor the last woman to be beaten up by her husband”. The Court held that the “authorities’ actions were not a simple failure or delay in dealing with violence against the first applicant, but amounted to repeatedly condoning such violence and reflected a discriminatory attitude towards the first applicant as a woman.”

The Equal Rights Trust, an international equality and social justice organisation, was granted permission to make written submissions in the proceedings. It argued strongly that the Court should recognise domestic violence as a gender equality issue in addition to being a violation of Articles 3 and 8. The Trust said, “Domestic violence, if it is to be effectively tackled, demands a particular response, which recognises the discriminatory causes and consequences of this phenomenon... domestic violence is one of the most serious and pervasive forms of discrimination against women.”

Click here to view a Council of Europe press release on the case.

Click here to read the judgment in full.

Click here to view submissions by the Equal Rights Trust.

Ireland is one of only 18 Member States in the Council of Europe which has not signed the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The National Women’s Council of Ireland is currently organising a campaign urging Ireland to sign the convention before the end of Ireland’s EU presidency. Click here for more information on their campaign.

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