10 Feb Violation of the procedural limb of Article 2 owing to the length of domestic compensation proceedings

In the case of Fernandes de Oliveira v. Portugal (application no. 78103/14, 31/01/2019) the European Court of Human Rights held that there had been:

• no violation of the substantive limb of Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights related to the measures to protect the life of a psychiatric inpatient who committed suicide, and
• that there had been a violation of the procedural limb of Article 2 of the European Convention owing to the length of subsequent domestic compensation proceedings.

The case concerned the suicide of the applicant’s adult son while he was a voluntary inpatient at a psychiatric hospital and the civil proceedings for damages the applicant, his mother, pursued following his death.

The applicant’s son was repeatedly admitted to the Sobral Cid Psychiatric Hospital in Coimbra over a number of years. On 2 April 2000 he was admitted as a voluntary inpatient to the same institution because he had attempted to commit suicide. On 27 April 2000 he left the hospital without notifying the hospital authorities and committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. The applicant lodged a civil action for damages against the hospital in March 2003, claiming that her son should have been under medical supervision and that the hospital staff should have prevented him from leaving.

The Court held that the regulatory framework for the care of the applicant’s son was in line with Convention requirements for protecting patients under Article 2. States have duty to take preventive operational measures to protect individuals from others and themselves. In earlier cases the Court had not explicitly stated that this duty extended to voluntary psychiatric inpatients, as well as those who had been admitted involuntarily, but it now stated that it applied to both categories of patient.

In this case, the authorities had provided sufficient safeguards given the lack of a clear and imminent risk of suicide. However, the Government had failed to give convincing reasons for the length of the domestic compensation proceedings – more than 11 years – and accordingly there had been a violation of the procedural aspect of this provision of the Convention.

References from the official website of the European Court of Human Rights