What Reparation Does a Torture Survivor Obtain from International Litigation? Critical Reflections on Practice at the Strasbourg Court

International Journal of Human Rights, 16:5, 755-772, 2012

22 Pages Posted: 10 Jan 2012 Last revised: 17 Jun 2012

See all articles by Bill Bowring

Bill Bowring

Birkbeck College, University of London - School of Law

Date Written: January 9, 2012

Abstract

Although the Strasbourg Court is primarily a mechanism for the protection of individual human rights, many of the leading cases on violation of Article 3 have a collective or a structural dimension. This is of great importance for the CAT definition of torture, which is that torture must have a purpose. Thus, the author’s experience of many Kurdish and Chechen complaints against Turkey and Russia respectively have to do the consequences of self-determination struggles and repressive state responses. Or, as in many of the Russian cases concerning Article 3, the structural problems of the Russian penitentiary system, in which the officers, mostly ex-military, see the prisoners as the enemy. A successful claimant at Strasbourg in most cases obtains a declaration that a violation has been committed by the government, and a sum of money in “just satisfaction”. Compared with the practice of the Inter-American Court, this is minimalist. The enforcement procedure through the Committee of Ministers, for general measures, is opaque and slow. The question remains: why do it?

Suggested Citation

Bowring, Bill, What Reparation Does a Torture Survivor Obtain from International Litigation? Critical Reflections on Practice at the Strasbourg Court (January 9, 2012). International Journal of Human Rights, 16:5, 755-772, 2012, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1982165 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1982165

Bill Bowring (Contact Author)

Birkbeck College, University of London - School of Law ( email )

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0207 631 6022 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.bbk.ac.uk/law/our-staff/ft-academic/bowring

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