Protecția victimelor minore ale infracțiunilor, din perspectiva art. 3 din Convenția europeană a drepturilor omului
Protection of juvenile victims of crime, from the perspective of Art. 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Summary/Abstract: The European Court of Human Rights highlighted on each occasion the absolute nature of the right to life (Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights) and of the right not to be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 3 of the Convention). Thus, no derogation is to be made from these rights under no circumstances. With a view to protecting these rights, the European Court of Human Rights imposed the standards of an effective criminal investigation, setting out procedural rules, mandatory to be observed by the authorities of the member States to the Convention, when a person complains about ill-treatment inflicted on him/her in breach of Article 2 or Article 3 of the Convention. In the particular case of vulnerable persons like minors, the European Court underlined that the national authorities must prove a special attention in order to ensure an increased protection of the victims. The Court has not excluded the possibility that the State’s positive obligation under Article 8 of the Convention (right to respect for private and family life) to safeguard the individual’s physical integrity may extend to questions relating to the effectiveness of a criminal investigation. In the present study, two relevant cases are illustrated, in which the Court held that a violation of Article 3 of the Convention, under its procedural limb, and, respectively, a violation of Article 8 of the Convention, intervened in respect of rights of minors, victims of sexual aggression crimes. Furthermore, the measures taken by the national authorities to enforce the Court’s judgments delivered in these two cases and the conclusions of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in their respect are also presented.

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