Domestic Violence Falls Within Article 3 – Requiring Police Action

In Volodina v Russia (Application No 41261/17), the European Court of Human Rights has held that domestic violence falls within the description of inhuman or degrading treatment for the purposes of article 3, such that where the police receive a complaint of this, they are likely to have an obligation to launch an investigation into it for the purposes of identifying and punishing the perpetrator and, possibly, to take protective measures against such further behaviour.

The state of domestic law in relation to police investigations remains as stated in DSD v Comr of Police of the Metropolis [2018] UKSC 11; [2019] AC 196, in which the Supreme Court held that laws which prohibit conduct constituting a breach of article 3 must be rigorously enforced and complaints of such conduct must be properly investigated [24]. To this can now be added the finding of the EctHR that domestic violence will fall within the definition of ill-treatment for the purposes of article 3, requiring the police to investigate such allegations.

Read more:  Elliot Gold, Police Law Blog, https://is.gd/rFOEEp