Liječnička pogreška kao povreda ljudskih prava
Medical malpractice as violation of human rights

Summary/Abstract: Even though the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms does not recognize the ”right to health” as one of the conventional rights, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights has recognized and developed protection of human rights of patients and their next of kin within the Convention, when they deem their rights have been violated by the medical negligence or medical malpractice. Most important, these rights were recognized under positive obligations which were imposed on the Member States within the right to life (Article 2 of the Convention) or under prohibition of torture (Article 3 of the Convention). In substance, the positive obligations developed through the Court’s case law demand from the Member State prompt, effective and patient-friendly system for detecting and eliminating the violations of the Convention on national level. There are three specific cases that were decided upon by the Court in respect of the Republic of Croatia regarding the positive obligations under Article 2 of the Convention in relations to medical malpractice (Bajić v. Croatia, Kudra v. Croatia and Bilbija and Blažević v. Croatia). These cases showed weakness in the national system and opened this theme for a wider public debate. The process of execution of these judgements before Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe lead to number of measures taken for improvement of the domestic system in terms of medical negligence and medical malpractice.

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