Domestic violence against a woman and the murder of her 1-year-old son - violation of Article 2 ECHR

EUROPE: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

European Court of Human Rights, judgment, 7 April 2022, Landi v. Italy (Application no. 10929/19).

«In the present case Ms Landi alleged that the Italian State had failed to take the requisite action to protect her and her two children from the domestic violence inflicted by her partner, which had led to the murder of her one-year-old son and her own attempted murder in 2018. The Court noted that the national authorities had failed in their duty to conduct an immediate and proactive assessment of the risk of a repetition of the violent acts committed against Ms Landi and her children, and to adopt operational and preventive measures to mitigate the risk and to protect those concerned. In particular, the authorities had remained passive in the face of the serious risk of ill-treatment of Ms Landi, and their inaction had enabled the applicant’s partner to continue to threaten, harass and attack her unhindered and with impunity. The authorities ought to have assessed the risk of renewed violence and adopted appropriate and adequate measures. Such measures could have been adopted by the authorities, pursuant to Italian legislation, whether or not there had been a complaint or any change in the victim’s perception of the risk. The authorities had reacted neither immediately, as required in cases of domestic violence, nor at any other time. They had therefore failed to show the requisite diligence and to honor their obligation to protect Ms Landi’s and her son’s lives. Nevertheless, the Court did not consider that the impugned shortcomings could be considered, per se, as pointing to any discriminatory attitude on the authorities’ part. The complaint concerning Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) read in conjunction with Article 2 was therefore manifestly ill-founded. The Court awarded the applicant just satisfaction of 32,000 euros in respect of non-pecuniary damage.»

Direct link to the judgment (hudoc.echr.coe.int)
Accès direct au communiqué de presse (hudoc.echr.coe.int)
Direct link to the press release (hudoc.echr.coe.int)

Gender Law Newsletter FRI 2022#2, 01.06.2022 - Newsletter abonnieren