THIRD SECTION
CASE OF VASILYEV AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA
(Applications nos. 19289/17 and 22 others –
see appended list)
JUDGMENT
STRASBOURG
29 April 2021
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision.
In the case of Vasilyev and Others v. Russia,
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
Darian Pavli, President,
Dmitry Dedov,
Peeter Roosma, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 8 April 2021,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in applications against Russia lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on the various dates indicated in the appended table.
2. The Russian Government (“the Government”) were given notice of the applications.
THE FACTS
3. The list of applicants and the relevant details of the applications are set out in the appended table.
4. The applicants complained of the permanent video surveillance of detainees in pre-trial or post-conviction detention facilities and lack of an effective remedy in this respect. In some applications complaints stemming from the same set of facts were also communicated to the Government.
THE LAWJOINDER OF THE APPLICATIONS
5. Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single judgment.ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLES 8 AND 13 of the Convention
6. The applicants complained about detention under permanent video surveillance in pre-trial or post-conviction detention facilities and about the lack of an effective remedy in that respect. They relied on Articles 8 and 13 of the Convention, which read, in so far as relevant, as follows:
Article 8
“1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private ... life ... .
2. There shall be no interference by a public authority with the exercise of this right except such as is in accordance with the law and is necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security, public safety or the economic well-being of the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.”
Article 13
“Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in [the] Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official capacity.”
7. The Court has already established, in an earlier case against Russia, that the national legal framework governing the placement of detainees under permanent video surveillance in penal institutions falls short of the standards set out in Article 8 of the Convention (see Gorlov and Others v. Russia (nos. 27057/06 and 2 others, 2 July 2019). In Gorlov and Others, the Court summed up the general principles concerning the detainees’ right to respect for private life reiterating that placing a person under permanent video surveillance whilst in detention was to be regarded as a serious interference with the individual’s right to respect for his or her privacy (ibid., §§ 81-82). It has further concluded that the national law (1) cannot be regarded as being sufficiently clear, precise or detailed to have afforded appropriate protection against arbitrary interference by the authorities with the detainees’ right to respect of their private life (ibid., §§ 97-98) and (2) does not presuppose any balancing exercise or enable an individual to obtain a judicial review of the proportionality of his or her placement under permanent video surveillance to the vested interests in securing his or her privacy (ibid., § 108).
8. Having examined all the material submitted to it, the Court has not found any fact or argument capable of persuading it to reach a different conclusion on the admissibility and merits of these complaints. It considers, regard being had to the case-law cited above, that in the instant case the placement of the applicants under permanent video surveillance when confined to their cells in pre-trial and post-conviction detention facilities was not “in accordance with law” and that they did not have at their disposal an effective remedy for their complaints in that respect.
9. These complaints are therefore admissible and disclose a breach of Articles 8 and 13 of the Convention.REMAINING COMPLAINTS
10. In applications nos. 19289/17, 32608/17, 34285/19 and 56069/19, the applicants also raised other complaints under various Articles of the Convention.
11. The Court has examined the applications and considers that, in the light of all the material in its possession and in so far as the matters complained of are within its competence, these complaints either do not meet the admissibility criteria set out in Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention or do not disclose any appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Convention or the Protocols thereto.
It follows that this part of the applications must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 41 OF THE CONVENTION
12. Article 41 of the Convention provides:
“If the Court finds that there has been a violation of the Convention or the Protocols thereto, and if the internal law of the High Contracting Party concerned allows only partial reparation to be made, the Court shall, if necessary, afford just satisfaction to the injured party.”
13. Regard being had to the documents in its possession and to its case‑law (see, in particular, Gorlov and Others, cited above, with further references, § 120, which imposed on the respondent State a legal obligation, under Article 46 of the Convention, to implement, under the supervision of the Committee of Ministers, such measures as they consider appropriate to secure the right of the applicants and other persons in their position to respect of their private life), the Court considers that the finding of a violation constitutes a sufficient just satisfaction in the present case.
FOR THESE REASONS, THE COURT, UNANIMOUSLY,Decides to join the applications;Declares the complaints concerning the permanent video surveillance in the applicants’ cells during their detention in pre-trial and post‑conviction facilities and the lack of an effective remedy in that respect admissible, and the remainder of applications nos. 19289/17, 32608/17, 34285/19 and 56069/19 inadmissible;Holds that these complaints disclose a breach of Articles 8 and 13 of the Convention;Holds that the finding of a violation constitutes in itself sufficient just satisfaction.
Done in English, and notified in writing on 29 April 2021, pursuant to Rule 77 §§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.
{signature_p_2}
Viktoriya MaradudinaDarian Pavli
Acting Deputy RegistrarPresident
APPENDIX
List of applications raising complaints under Articles 8 and 13 of the Convention
(permanent video surveillance of detainees in pre-trial or post-conviction detention facilities and
lack of an effective remedy in that respect)
No.
Application no.
Date of introduction
Applicant’s name
Year of birth
Representative’s name and location
Detention facility
Period of detention
Specific circumstances
19289/17
17/02/2017
Nikita Anatolyevich VASILYEV
1981
Egle Denis Sergeyevich
Krasnoyarsk
IK-17 Krasnoyarsk Region
21/10/2015 - 06/12/2018
detention in different cells with video surveillance, opposite-sex operators
32608/17
18/04/2017
Roman Anzorovich LENGAMO
1986
Egle Denis Sergeyevich
Krasnoyarsk
IK-17 Krasnoyarsk Region
07/12/2015 - 02/06/2017
opposite-sex operators
62419/17
09/08/2017
Yuriy Nikolayevich KRIVONOGOV
1982
Egle Denis Sergeyevich
Krasnoyarsk
IK-15 Krasnoyarsk Region
12/04/2011 - 12/04/2017
opposite-sex operators
68898/17
10/08/2017
Aleksey Viktorovich POPOV
1989
Egle Denis Sergeyevich
Krasnoyarsk
IK-15 Krasnoyarsk Region
22/06/2012 - 16/02/2017
opposite-sex operators
69015/17
29/08/2017
Aleksandr Andreyevich MUKHIN
1990
Egle Denis Sergeyevich
Krasnoyarsk
Transit Detention Facility IK-6 Krasnoyarsk;
SIZO-6 and SIZO-1 Krasnoyarsk
23/08/2016 - 06/03/2017
detention in different cells with video surveillance
3703/18
29/12/2017
Shota Ivanovich TATRISHVILI
1981
Gavrilitsa Irina Aleksandrovna
Krasnoyarsk
IK-5 Krasnoyarsk Region
March 2012 - 06/08/2017
video surveillance in a lavatory and/or shower room, detention in different cells with video surveillance
3707/18
29/12/2017
Viktor Aleksandrovich YANKE
1978
Gavrilitsa Irina Aleksandrovna
Krasnoyarsk
IK-17 Krasnoyarsk Region
01/05/2012 - 04/08/2017
opposite-sex operators, video surveillance in a lavatory and/or shower room
41929/18
20/08/2018
Petr Petrovich VOLKOV
1986
Miller Irina Vladimirovna
Kansk
IK-15 Krasnoyarsk Region
31/05/2016 - 21/03/2018
opposite-sex operators
4885/19
09/01/2019
Nikolay Anatolyevich KUZNETSOV
1972
IK-5 Krasnoyarsk Region
11/10/2018 - pending
detention in different cells with video surveillance, opposite-sex operators
5573/19
22/12/2018
Kurbonali Amindzhonovich SAIDOV
1978
Egle Denis Sergeyevich
Krasnoyarsk
IK-15 Krasnoyarsk Region
01/04/2016 - 28/06/2018
detention in different cells with video surveillance, opposite-sex operators
8876/19
24/04/2019
Aleksey Olegovich BALCHIY
1985
IK-5 Krasnoyarsk Region
27/02/2018 - 16/12/2019
opposite-sex operators
24473/19
26/04/2019
Yevgeniy Andreyevich KOLESOV
1999
Preobrazhenskaya Oksana Vladimirovna
Strasbourg
IK-2 Vladimir Region
18/01/2017 - 26/10/2018
opposite-sex operators
34074/19
20/08/2018
Kallistrat Aleksandrovich YEMANAKOV
1985
IZ-75/1 Chita,
Zabaykalskiy Region
14/08/2016 - 21/02/2018
opposite-sex operators, detention in different cells with video surveillance
34285/19
15/06/2019
Yevgeniy Sergeyevich KOSOLAPOV
1985
Golub Olga Viktorovna
Suzemka
IVS Buynaksk
17/12/2018 - 29/12/2018
detention in different cells with video surveillance
50289/19
05/09/2019
Viktor Yegorovich MERZLYAKOV
1962
IK-6 Orenburg Region
22/01/2001 - 15/03/2019
detention in different cells with video surveillance, opposite-sex operators, video surveillance in a lavatory and/or shower room
52292/19
20/09/2019
Sergey Sergeyevich KOZLOVSKIY
1992
IK-5 Krasnoyarsk Region
05/11/18 - pending
detention in different cells with video surveillance, opposite-sex operators
56069/19
13/10/2019
Dzhon Surenovich ZIRAKYAN
1985
SIZO-1 Noginsk,
Moscow Region
15/01/2018 - 24/05/2019
opposite-sex operators, detention in different cells with video surveillance
60610/19
09/11/2019
Yuliana Nikolayevna PARAMONOVA
1982
Andreyev Ashot Aleksandrovich
Syktyvkar
IZ-1, IK-31, Komi Republic
16/04/2019 - 16/08/2019
detention in different cells with video surveillance, opposite-sex operators
3214/20
18/12/2019
Georgiy Alekseyevich POZDNYSHEV
1980
IK-31 Komi Republic
10/07/2017 - 18/10/2019
detention in different cells with video surveillance, opposite-sex operators
5776/20
13/12/2019
Aleksey Sergeyevich FEOKTISTOV
1979
IZ-1 Komi Republic
01/05/2019 - 15/01/2020
opposite-sex operators, detention in different cells with video surveillance
8468/20
22/01/2020
Sergey Sergeyevich KOZLOV
1981
LIU-37 Krasnoyarsk Region
11/12/2018 - 26/08/2019
opposite-sex operators, detention in different cells with video surveillance
11742/20
18/02/2020
Denis Nikolayevich PETROV
1974
Settlement colony-51 Krasnoyarsk Region
06/11/2019 -15/11/2019
opposite-sex operators
20981/20
09/04/2020
Vasiliy Arkadyevich BOGATYREV
1959
IK-5 Krasnoyarsk Region
since 2011 and pending
opposite-sex operators
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy