Case Summary
Eremia and Others v The Republic of Moldova
Application Number: 3564/11
On 28 May 2013, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) held that the failure by Moldovan authorities to take decisive action in a domestic violence case breached the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the Convention). Specifically, the Court found that the failure breached the right to be protected from inhuman treatment (Article 3); the right to be protected from interference with private life and home (Article 8); and the prohibition of discrimination (Article 14). The Equal Rights Trust intervened in the case, successfully arguing that domestic violence constitutes gender-based discrimination and that the Court, in deciding the case, should consider the Article 14 prohibition of discrimination in addition to the other Convention rights. In finding a breach of Article 14, the Court found that the failure by the authorities to take action to protect a mother and her children from the domestic violence perpetrated by the husband/father reflected a discriminatory attitude towards the wife as a woman and amounted to a repeated condoning of the violence.