Communicated on 9 September 2020
Published on 28 September 2020
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 12546/20
Nikolay Vasilyevich OVCHINNIKOV
against Russia
lodged on 3 March 2020
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the Russian authorities’ failure to respond to a situation of domestic violence (see Volodina v. Russia, no. 41261/17, 9 July 2019). In 2012, the applicant’s daughter married a convicted murderer. Following the birth of their second child in 2018, their relationship deteriorated. He started drinking heavily and beating his wife. On 6 and 7 August 2018 she called the police. He had been drinking for a week and threatened to kill her; she feared for her life. The police refused to open a criminal case on the grounds that the threats had not been “real”. On 8 August 2018 she reported new threats of death to the police. On 8 September 2018 her husband killed her and hid her body in the forest. By judgment of 11 July 2019, as upheld on appeal on 10 September 2019, he was convicted of murder but acquitted on the charge of threats of death which the courts did not find to have been sufficiently “real”.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. As regards the alleged violations of Articles 2, 3 and 13 of the Convention in connection with the murder of the applicant’s daughter on 8 September 2018 and the death threats made in August 2018, did the Russian authorities discharge their obligation to protect her against the violence inflicted by her husband? In particular,
(a) Did the Russian State discharge the obligation to establish and apply effectively a legislative framework for punishing all forms of domestic violence and providing sufficient safeguards for victims?
(b) Did the Russian authorities discharge the obligation to take the reasonable measures that might have been expected of them in the circumstances in order to avert further risk of ill-treatment after the applicant’s daughter had reported threats of death on 6 August 2018? Did the Russian authorities design and implement a strategy for risk assessment and management of domestic violence?
(c) Did the Russian authorities discharge the obligation to conduct an effective investigation into all instances of ill-treatment which had been reported to them and to bring the perpetrator to account?
2. As regards the alleged violation of Article 14 of the Convention, taken in conjunction with Articles 2 and 3, did the applicant establish that his daughter was the victim of structural bias or individual prejudice on account of her sex (see Volodina, cited above, § 114)?
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