Inhuman and degrading treatment from the perspective of The European Court of Human Rights

“This thesis will be focusing on judicial procedure and rulings concerning violations pertaining to International Covenants, Charters, Conventions and Treaties. However, more specifically on the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and cases of the European Court of Human Rights, particularly focusing on the prohibition of torture and inhumane or degrading treatment. Moreover, trying to discern the distinguishing factors that divide the principles of Article 3, and trying to indicate how these factors are ascertained and what makes them determining factors. In this process we will consider subjective and objective factors and how they are applicable in situations where a State is directly or indirectly responsible. In this sense I will try to explain through examples how violations happen in the vertical context where a government is directly liable. Furthermore, in the horizontal context we will see how a State’s indirect responsibility can constitute inhuman and degrading treatment. We will also examine how violations occur in certain typically sensitive situations. Particularly, in instances of arrest where a person is subjected to the will of police officials, detainment where a person has his or her personal freedoms restricted and in imprisonment where a person is lawfully incarcerated. In these circumstances we have to realize that these people are in State custody and that the State is responsible for their treatment and conditions in such custody. Furthermore, I will try to make sense of violations in the context of deportation and we will especially look into the notion of the “death row phenomenon”. Here we have to discern special factors that the European Court of Human Rights has determined as important for indicating a possible violation. These cases are specific because of such factors and in that sense they fall into a category of their own. On the other hand this thesis will also investigate situations of domestic corporal punishment and domestic violence. In these situations the perpetrators are private subjects or institutions so we will see how and why a State could be held accountable in regards to such criminal activity. Subsequently, based on all these situations we will see how omissions, as well as acts, can indicate a States liability. Lastly, I will try and figure out how redress is determined and if its disparity is based on the type of violation or on a certain factor. Through all this the dissertation will touch on the subject of proportionality in the sense of requisite restrictions of human rights and just restitution.