ECHR condemns Swiss failure to protect woman from violence

ECtHR condemns Switzerland for failing to protect women from violence Keystone-SDA

Switzerland did not provide a woman with sufficient protection against her partner who had been violent in the past, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The man was convicted of rape and murder in 1995. In 2007, he abducted the victim, raped and abused her. His victim knew nothing of her partner’s previous acts of violence.

In its decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stated that the authorities as a whole had not taken the necessary steps to inform and protect the woman.

The violent man’s family doctor, who was consulted by the woman, merely advised the woman to separate. The doctor did inform the police. However, the police did not take any official steps.

Only one police officer urged the woman on her own initiative to leave her partner because he was dangerous. However, he did not give her any details about his past. (Decision number 56114/18)

Translated from French with DeepL/mga

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate them into English. A journalist then briefly reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team.

Did you find this explanation helpful? Please fill out the short survey on this page to help us understand your needs.