Maria da Penha Maia Fernandes was physically abused by her husband, Mr. Heredia Viveiros, for many years. In May 1983, he shot her while she was sleeping in an attempt to murder her. She survived but sustained serious injuries and became paraplegic. Two weeks after the shooting, he attacked her again and at that moment …Read more

The applicant alleged that the military government of Nigeria (Government), in its efforts to produce oil through the State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), contaminated the environment of the Ogoni People and led to environmental degradation and health problems among that community. More specifically, the applicant claimed that the NNPC, acting within a consortium with …Read more

Ms. Carmichele stayed at a friend’s place where Coetzee, a man who had previous history of violence and sexual misconduct, stalked her and walked around the house. She and her friend reported Coetzee’s abnormal behavior to the local police station but the police claimed that they could do nothing about him. Eventually one day when …Read more

K, RK and V are Bosnian Serbs who were involved in a Serb campaign against Bosnian Muslims in the area of Foca between April 1992 until at least February 1993. One purpose of the campaign was to cleanse the Foca area of Muslims. In addition to the Muslim armed forces, a target to the campaign …Read more

Six communications jointly alleged that the Mauritanian state committed numerous human rights violations from 1986 to 1992. Specifically, the communications alleged that the State violated articles 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, and 26 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (“the Charter”), which came into …Read more

The applicant, a former teacher and former head of the Diyarbakır branch of the Education and Science Workers Union, made comments to a local newspaper about the mistreatment of teachers by government authorities. She was disciplined according to domestic law—an administrative court ultimately overturned this penalty six years later. Following this incident, the applicant received …Read more

S was a homosexual Portuguese national. In 1983 he married a woman, C, with whom he had a daughter. S and C subsequently separated and then divorced. Since their separation, S had been living with another man. In connection with their divorce, S and C signed an agreement giving C parental responsibility over the daughter …Read more

The applicant alleged that his brother had been severely beaten by police when they apprehended him at his village and that he was not provided with the necessary medical treatment for his life-threatening injuries. He also complained of discrimination on the basis of his brother’s Kurdish origin. In 1992, the applicant Nasır İlhan and his …Read more

Hutchison Reid, the respondent, was convicted of culpable homicide in 1967. He was made the subject of a hospital order and a restriction order without any time limit under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1955 (the Criminal Procedure Act). A restriction order under the Criminal Procedure Act could only be made if the person posed …Read more

In July 1980 the appellant, who was 12 years old at the time, was struck on the head by the bag of a schoolmate and collapsed. The appellant was seen by a general practitioner who referred him to Western General Hospital, the first respondent, where he was placed under the care of Mr. Jensen, the …Read more

Five youths, three of whom were minors, were “street children” abducted, tortured, and killed by State security agents.  The children lived in a sector of the city where violence and crime rate were high and where State officials commit illegal acts against “street children,” including “threats, arrests, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and homicides as …Read more

Filipe Bechu was charged with the offence of rape. The Penal Code states that “Any person who has unlawful carnal act with a woman or girl, without her consent, or with her consent if the consent is obtained by force or by means of threats or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of bodily …Read more

The respondent was tried for one count of rape and one of abduction for assaulting an 11-year-old girl, having sex with her and forcing her to sleep with him for the next three nights. In finding him not guilty the trial judge applied the cautionary rule, which required the court both to recognize the inherent …Read more

M was charged with sexual offenses. Following an adjournment of M’s trial his counsel sought full disclosure of all therapeutic records and notes relating to the complainant in possession of a counseling organization. An order for partial disclosure was made and M sought further disclosure of psychiatric records. However, in the interim Bill C-46 had …Read more

In June 1992 four police officers attended an apartment from which an unknown trouble call to the police had originated. An unknown trouble call is an emergency call to the police in which the line is disconnected before the caller speaks. Such calls are deemed by police policy to be the second highest priority distress …Read more

The complainant, a seventeen year old woman, was interviewed by E for a job in his van. The interview, continued in E’s trailer where he offered to display some of his products. The complainant purposely left the door of the trailer open, but E allegedly closed it in a way that made the complainant think …Read more

The appellant was schizophrenic and was arrested for attacking pedestrians on the street with a knife. Prior to the incident he had been hearing voices. The appellant was charged with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and possession of a weapon for purposes dangerous to the public peace. He was found not criminally responsible (“NCR”) …Read more

On 19 March 1996, an indictment was issued against the four accused ZD, ZM, HD and EL. The indictment related to the events that took place in 1992 in a prison camp near the town of Celebici in central Bosnia and Herzegovina. The accused were charged with grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, …Read more

This case concerned the impact of Hungary’s constitutional guarantee of the right to life on its parliament’s ability to pass abortion laws. Petitioners submitted that Hungary’s Act LXXIX/1992 on the Protection of Foetal Life (“the Act”), regarding permissible abortion, was unconstitutional. The Act allowed a pregnant woman to have an abortion if she was “in …Read more

Applicant is a British citizen and a minor born in 1984 who was beaten on several occasions by his stepfather with a garden cane, causing bruises all over his body, until he was placed under child protection in 1990. The stepfather was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and tried but was found not …Read more

The applicant was a 17-year old Turkish national of Kurdish origin girl who lived with her parents in a village in south-east Turkey. Since 1985 serious disturbances had raged in this part of the country between the security forces and the members of a Kurdish separatist party. Turkey claimed that these had resulted in the deaths …Read more

The Applicants were the South African Human Rights Commission and a coalition of 70 organizations representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in South Africa. They brought a constitutional challenge to various statutory provisions in South Africa criminalizing homosexual acts. The Applicants claimed that the statutes in question violated sections 9, 10 and 14 of …Read more

A Bill entitled ‘Prohibition of Ragging and Other Forms of Violence in Educational Institutions’ was drafted in response to the increase and brutality of ‘ragging’ in educational institutions. Section 17 of the Bill defined ‘ragging’ as ‘any act which causes, or is likely to cause, physical or psychological injury or mental pain or fear or …Read more

The applicant, a Finnish national, had been married to X, who was not a Finnish national, at the time the events occurred. They were both infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). X was convicted for rape and during the criminal proceedings the court gave orders requiring the applicant’s medical advisers to give evidence. In …Read more

Laskey (L), Jaggard (J) and Brown (B) had taken part in sado-masochistic encounters with as many as forty-four other homosexual men over a ten-year period. These mainly involved maltreatment of the genitalia and ritualistic beatings, either with the assailant’s bare hands or a variety of implements. There were instances of branding and infliction of injuries …Read more

Aksoy (A) claimed that in November 1992 he was taken into custody by twenty policemen after M (another detainee with them) had allegedly identified him as a member of the PKK which was engaged in a conflict with security forces for Kurdish autonomy. This conflict had resulted in nearly 8,000 deaths and there was a …Read more

Johansen (J) gave birth to a son, C, in 1977 when she was seventeen years old and they became dependent on social assistance. From 1980 onwards she cohabited with a man who was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for drug offences in 1983 and who mistreated her and C. The welfare authorities assisted J on …Read more

Stubbings was born in 1957, placed in the care of Mr. and Mrs. W by a local authority when she was  two years old, and adopted by them when she was three. She alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Mr. W and committed acts of indecency at his instigation on a number of occasions …Read more

In a communication submitted to the United Nations Humans Right Committee (“UNHRC”), Yvonne M’Boissona asserted that her brother, François Bozize, led a coup d’état in the Central African Republic in 1982. After fleeing the country, he was arrested in July 1989 in Benin, repatriated to the Central African Republic by force, and imprisoned at a …Read more

Drbal (D) had not complied with a court order giving custody of his daughter to her mother because, in his view, she was mentally ill and aggressive. An attempt to take away the child by force had also failed. He complained about the bias of the court’s chairman and the disregard of the medical evidence …Read more