Published on 25 August 2025
FIFTH SECTION
Application no. 28675/19
Zinayida Konstyantynivna DAMASKINA and Others
against Ukraine
lodged on 21 May 2019
communicated on 8 August 2025
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The applicants are Ukrainian nationals of Roma ethnicity who were living in Loshchynivka village in Odesa Region.
On 27 August 2016 the police accused a Roma man from Loshchynivka of having raped and killed a little girl.
On the same day the applicants fled their houses as they were informed that the villagers had decided to oust them from the village.
In the evening of the same day the villagers damaged and burned the applicants’ houses and property found in it. The police and the local authorities were aware of the attack but failed to intervene.
The applicants did not return to live in Loshchynivka fearing for their safety.
On 27 August 2016 the police instituted criminal investigation into the events following a complaint lodged by the applicants and some activists concerned by the events. The investigation remains pending.
The applicants complain that the attack on their property and the authorities’ failure to ensure their safety caused them fear and anguish amounting to treatment within the scope of Article 3 of the Convention. They further complain that the investigation into the attack has been ineffective, and no efforts has been made to uncover racial motivation of the attack (procedural limb of Article 3). The applicants further state that the attack violated their right to home (Article 8) and their right to the peaceful enjoyment of their possessions (Article 1 of Protocol No. 1). They finally complain that the attack and the authorities’ failure to act were racially motivated (Article 14 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 12).
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Have the applicants complied with the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies laid down in Article 35 § 1 of the Convention in respect of their complaints, notice of which is being given to the Government? Have such remedies been available to them in theory and in practice?
2. Have the applicants complied with the six-month time-limit laid down in Article 35 § 1 of the Convention in respect of their complaints, notice of which is being given to the Government?
3. Were the applicants subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment, in breach of Article 3 of the Convention?
4. Having regard to the procedural protection from torture, inhuman or degrading treatment (see Labita v. Italy [GC], no. 26772/95, § 131, ECHR 2000-IV), was the investigation by the domestic authorities in the present case in breach of Article 3 of the Convention?
5. Has there been a violation of the applicants’ right to respect for their private or family life or their home, contrary to Article 8 of the Convention?
6. Has there been a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 in respect of the applicants’ property?
7. Have the applicants suffered discrimination on the ground of their ethnic origin, contrary to Article 14 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, and to Article 1 of Protocol No. 12? In particular, have the authorities taken all reasonable steps to investigate any possible racist motives behind the alleged attack and the destruction of the applicants’ houses (see Šečić v. Croatia, no. 40116/02, §§ 66 and 67, 31 May 2007)?
APPENDIX
List of applicants
No.
Applicant’s Name
Year of birth
Nationality
Place of residence
1.
Zinayida Konstyantynivna DAMASKINA
1986
Ukrainian
Izmail
2.
Yefrosyniya Ivanivna CHEBOTAR
1960
Ukrainian
Loshchynivka
3.
Yuliya Andriyivna CHEBOTAR
1986
Ukrainian
Loshchynivka
4.
Olena Mykolayivna CHURAR
1985
Ukrainian
Izmail
5.
Ruslan Mykolayovych CHURAR
1993
Ukrainian
Loshchynivka
6.
Zinayida Vasylivna KHALYEVYCH
1963
Ukrainian
Loshchynivka
7.
Zinayida Mykolayivna MUNTYAN
1983
Ukrainian
Izmail