Domestic violence in Russia: The Volodina case

Volodina v Russia (Application No 41261/17)

Briefed on 23rd November 2020

This case concerns domestic violence, including grave physical and mental suffering from physical and psychological abuse of the applicant over two years by her ex-partner. The applicant submitted over eight complaints to the authorities over two years: no attempt to protect the applicant from further violence or to open criminal proceedings against the (known) perpetrator.

The ECtHR found a violation of the applicants right to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Prohibition of torture and cruel treatment). The Court also found a violation of the applicant's Article 14 (Prohibition of discrimination) right. “The Russian authorities failed to create conditions for substantive gender equality that would enable women to live free from fear of ill-treatment or attacks on their physical integrity to benefit from the equal protection of the law.”(para. 132)

The presentation on this case was given by Vanessa Kogan, Stichting Justice Initiative Executive Director.

• Link to the video of the briefing

• Power point presentation

• Rule 9 submission by Stichting Justice Initiative (July 2020)