Opuz v Turkey
A state that failed to protect a woman and her mother from repeated and escalating domestic violence breached the rights to life and freedom from ill treatment, and the discriminatory failure breached article 14.
Facts
Mrs Opuz and her mother were repeatedly assaulted, threatened and injured by Mrs Opuz's husband over a period of years. They made numerous complaints to the Turkish authorities, but the prosecutions were often dropped when the women withdrew their complaints under pressure, and the husband received little punishment. Eventually, the husband shot and killed Mrs Opuz's mother as she tried to flee with her daughter. He was convicted, but released pending appeal.
Legal principle
The European Court of Human Rights held that Turkey had violated article 2, the right to life, in respect of the mother, and article 3, the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment, in respect of Mrs Opuz, because the authorities knew of the risk and failed to take reasonable measures to protect them. The court also held, for the first time, that the failure to protect women from domestic violence amounted to discrimination on grounds of sex, in breach of article 14, because the general passivity of the judicial system in dealing with domestic violence mainly affected women.
Related cases on domestic abuse and occupation orders
- B v B (Occupation Order) [1999] 1 FLR 715
- Chalmers v Johns [1999] 1 FLR 392
- F v M [2021] EWFC 4
- G v G (Occupation Order: Conduct) [2000] 2 FLR 36
- Re H-N and Others (Children) (Domestic Abuse: Finding of Fact Hearings) [2021] EWCA Civ 448
- Re L (A Child) (Contact: Domestic Violence); Re V; Re M; Re H [2001] Fam 260
- Michael v Chief Constable of South Wales Police [2015] UKSC 2, [2015] AC 1732
- Nwogbe v Nwogbe [2000] 2 FLR 744
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