Date of decision: 2/07/2020
Jurisdiction: European Court of Human Rights
Country: France
Legal basis: Article 3, prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment
Subject: Asylum-seekers living rough for several months without resources due to administrative delays preventing them from receiving the support provided for by law.
In the case of N.H. and Others v. France (application nos. 28820/13, 75547/13 and 13114/15) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights in respect of the applicants N.H. (no. 28820/13), K.T. (no. 75547/13) and A.J. (no. 13114/15), and no violation of Article 3, in respect of the applicant S.G. (no. 75547/13).
The applications concerned five asylum-seekers, single men, living in France. They complained that they had been unable to receive the material and financial support to which they were entitled under French law and had thus been forced to sleep rough in inhuman and degrading conditions for several months.
The Court observed that the applicant N.H. had been living in the street without any resources; this was also the case for K.T. and A.J. who had only received the Temporary Allowance after 185 and 133 days respectively. In addition, before being able to register as asylum-seekers, N.H., K.T. and A.J. had been forced to survive for a certain period without any evidence of that status.
The French authorities had failed in their duties under domestic law. They were found responsible for the conditions in which the applicants had been living for several months: sleeping rough, without access to sanitary facilities, having no means of subsistence and constantly in fear of being attacked or robbed. The applicants had thus been victims of degrading treatment, showing a lack of respect for their dignity.
The Court found that such living conditions, combined with the lack of an appropriate response from the French authorities and the fact that the domestic courts had systematically objected that the competent bodies lacked resources in the light of their status as single young men, had exceeded the threshold of severity for the purposes of Article 3 of the Convention. The three applicants N.H., K.T. and A.J. had thus found themselves, through the fault of the French authorities, in a situation that was incompatible with Article 3 of the Convention.
You can access the judgement in full here.
English
Jurisdiction:
Council of Europe - European Court of Human Rights
Article 3 - Prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment
Subject:
Cruel inhuman and degrading treatment
Country:
