Domestic violence; A. v. Croatia.

Case no. [55164/08], ECHR, Strasbourg, 14 October 2010 [Section I], A. v. Croatia

Ground: The Article 8 of ECHR on positive obligations; The Article 8/1 of ECHR to respect for the private life; the failure of the authorities in the application of judicial sentences; domestic violence; discrimination.

The abstract of the Judgment

According to the facts of this case, in the period from November 2003 to June 2006, the husband of the applicant, who had been diagnosed of suffering from serious mental disorders, with a tendency towards violent and impulsive behaviors, repeatedly had exercised against her physical and psychological violence, including death threats, hitting and kicking in the head, face and body. The violence had happened in the presence of their daughter, who in some cases was object of violence. Marriage was dissolved in 2006. In periods between 2004 and 2009, a number of criminal proceedings against the former husband were filed and some protection orders were issued. Only some of protection orders were respected. In the time of the judgment of the case from ECHR, he was suffering a sentence of three years’ imprisonment because of threatening a judge. Under the Article 8 of the ECHR, national authorities have the positive obligation to defend the applicant from the violent behaviors of her former husband. The court announced that the failure of the state to take measures by means of a judicial sentence to address the psychiatric problems of B and to protect A from the violence of B was a violation of the positive obligation of the state to guarantee the right of A to respect her private life, violating the Article 8. Since the court had noticed that was violated the Article 8, we are not dealing with special issues that remain to be analyzed under the Articles 2, 3 and 13; the court refused the lawsuit of A according to which the government had violated the Article 14, since A could not bring sufficient prima facie evidences, under which the measures taken by the government on domestic violence or on the effects of such measures had been discriminatory.