Resolution CM/ResDH(2023)492
Execution of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights
Three cases against Ukraine
(Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 7 December 2023
at the 1483rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies)
Application No.
Case
Judgment of
Final on
31939/06
ALEKSAKHIN
19/07/2012
19/10/2012
1727/04
OLEKSIY MYKHAYLOVYCH ZAKHARKIN
24/06/2010
24/09/2010
34725/08
SAVIN
16/02/2012
16/05/2012
The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” and “the Court”),
Having regard to the final judgments transmitted by the Court to the Committee in these cases and to the violations established mainly on account of torture and/or ill-treatment by the police, mostly in order to obtain confessions, and lack of effective investigations into such complaints (substantive and procedural violations of Article 3);
Recalling the respondent State’s obligation, under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention, to abide by all final judgments in cases to which it has been a party and that this obligation entails, over and above the payment of any sums awarded by the Court, the adoption by the authorities of the respondent State, where required:
- of individual measures to put an end to violations established and erase their consequences so as to achieve as far as possible restitutio in integrum; and
- of general measures preventing similar violations;
Having invited the government of the respondent State to inform the Committee of the measures taken to comply with the above-mentioned obligation;
Having examined the action plan provided by the government indicating the individual measures adopted to give effect to the judgments including the information provided regarding the payment of the just satisfaction awarded by the Court (see document DH-DD(2023)1269);
Considering with regret that no further individual measures can be envisaged in the light of the final decisions of domestic courts on conviction and sentencing to a non-custodial sentence, considered to be lenient by the Court in the case of Aleksakhin, and exemption from liability on account of prescription in the cases of Oleksiy Mykhaylovych Zakharkin and Savin; noting that in the Oleksiy Mykhaylovych Zakharkin and Savin cases the applicants concerned were no longer in police custody;
Recalling that the question of general measures required in response to the shortcomings found by the Court in these judgments continues to be examined within the framework of the Kaverzin/Afanasyev groups of cases, also in the light of the Court’s findings in these cases, and that the closure of these cases therefore in no way prejudges the Committee’s evaluation of the general measures in relation to torture and/or ill-treatment in police custody, including with a view to extracting confessions, and lack of effective investigations in this respect;
Noting that the outstanding questions related to unlawful detention and lack of judicial review compatible with the standards laid down in the Court’s case-law, raised in the Oleksiy Mykhaylovych Zakharkin and Savin cases, are being examined by the Committee in the context of the supervision of the Ignatov group of cases;
DECLARES that it has exercised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in these cases;
CONCLUDES that no further individual measures are possible;
DECIDES to continue to supervise the adoption of the necessary general measures concerning torture and/or ill-treatment in police custody and lack of effective investigation in this respect in the Kaverzin and Afanasyev groups of cases, and regarding unlawful detention – in the Ignatov group of cases;
DECIDES to close the examination of these cases.