The applicant’s wife had set fire to herself during an attempt by police officers to evict the applicant and his family from accommodation that they were occupying.
Held: It was necessary to determine whether ‘this specific situation’ triggered the state’s operational duty ‘that is whether at some point during the course of the operation the state agents became aware or ought to have become aware’ that there was a risk of suicide: ‘in a situation where an individual threatens to take his or her own life in plain view of state agents and, moreover where this threat is an emotional reaction directly induced by the state agents’ actions or demands, the latter should treat this threat with the utmost seriousness as constituting an imminent risk to that individual’s life, regardless of how unexpected that threat might have been.’
Citations:
4762/05, [2009] ECHR 2079
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights
Jurisdiction:
Human Rights
Cited by:
Cited – Rabone and Another v Pennine Care NHS Foundation SC 8-Feb-2012
The claimant’s daughter had committed suicide whilst on home leave from a hospital where she had stayed as a voluntary patient with depression. Her admission had followed a suicide attempt. The hospital admitted negligence but denied that it owed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 11 August 2022; Ref: scu.384345
