Kansainväliset oikeudelliset tietolähteet
EIT tuomitsi Venäjän vankilaolot pilottitapauksessa yleisesti EIS:n vastaisina
Euroopan ihmisoikeustuomioistuin (EIT) on tänään antamassaan tuomiossa katsonut, että Venäjän vankilaolot ovat systemaattisessa alennustilassa. Ne rikkovat EIT:n mukaan 3 artiklaa, jossa kielletään kidutus ja muu epäinhimillisen kohtelu.
EIT:n lehdistötiedotteesta:Measures to implement the judgment (Article 46)
The Court found that inadequate conditions of detention was a recurrent structural problem in Russia, as a result of which it had found violations of Articles 3 and 13 in more than 80 judgments adopted since the first such finding in the Kalashnikov case (Application no. 47095/99, judgment of 15 July 2002). Further 250 cases were pending before the Court in which the applicants complained about the conditions of their detention.
While the violations found had occurred in geographically diverse regions, the origins of the violations were substantially similar: detainees suffered inhuman and degrading treatment because of acute lack of personal space in their cells, shortage of sleeping places, limited access to light and fresh air and non-existent privacy when using the sanitary facilities. Consequently, the problem was the result of a malfunctioning of the Russian penitentiary system and insufficient legal and administrative safeguards, and the Russian authorities had acknowledged both the magnitude of the problem and the urgency to take steps to deal with it.
In view of the above, the Court decided to apply the pilot judgment procedure. It further found it necessary to identify the origin of the problem and to provide assistance to the Russian Government and to the Committee of Ministers in the process of implementing today’s judgment.
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The Court further noted that the primary cause of overcrowding was the excessive use of pre-trial detention without proper justification and the excessive duration of such detention. Noting an inordinately high level of applications for a detention order granted by the Russian courts (in excess of 90%), the Court reiterated that it had found a breach of the obligation to guarantee a trial within a reasonable time or release pending trial, under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention, in more than 80 cases against Russia. In those cases the domestic courts had extended the applicants’ detention relying essentially on the gravity of the charges and employing the same stereotyped formulae. That had also been identified by the Committee of Ministers as a structural problem in Russia. In order to resolve it, which in turn would effectively decrease the number of remand prisoners, the Court considered that the custodial measure should be reserved to the most serious cases involving violent offences and that remand in custody should be an exceptional measure rather than the norm.
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In view of the fundamental nature of the right not to be treated inhumanly or degradingly, the Court did not adjourn the examination of similar applications pending before it. It found that continuing to process all conditions-of-detention cases would remind Russia of its obligations to enforce today’s judgment. Russia had to do so including by ensuring accelerated settlement of individual cases already pending before the Court within 12 months from the date on which this judgment became final or when such applications were brought to the attention of the Government.
