Published on 16 May 2022
FOURTH SECTION
Application no. 731/22
Banko Smilov KEHAYOV and Briana Bankova KEHAYOVA
against Bulgaria
lodged on 23 December 2021
communicated on 29 April 2022
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the alleged failure of the authorities to comply with their positive obligations to enable the effective exercise of the contact rights between the applicants (a father and his daughter aged 13). Relying on Article 8 alone and in conjunction with Article 13 of the Convention, the applicants complain of a breach of their right to family life. They claim in particular a prolonged impossibility to have contact with each other, in view of the alleged reluctance of the mother to cooperate, despite a final domestic decision of the Haskovo District Court of 17 December 2019. The said decision had approved an agreement reached between the first applicant and the second applicant’s mother, according to which the mother would have custody of the child and the first applicant – contact rights. The first applicant claims that his calls for action by the authorities, including social services and bailiffs, turned out futile.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Has there been a violation of the applicants’ right to respect for family life within the meaning of Article 8 of the Convention, on account of the alleged failure on the part of the competent Bulgarian authorities to enable regular contact between the applicants in line with the agreement on contact rights approved by the Haskovo District Court in a decision of 17 December 2019 (see, for example, Ignaccolo-Zenide v. Romania, no. 31679/96, ECHR 2000-I, and Aneva and Others v. Bulgaria, nos. 66997/13 and 2 others, 6 April 2017)?
2. Did the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for their complaint under Article 8, as required by Article 13 of the Convention?