Avenue de l'Europe
Jasińska v. Poland 
| 2010
The prison authorities had indications as to the deterioration of R. Ch.'s state of mental health and should legitimately have raised the question of the risk that he might try to end his life.
Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights, 1 June 2010
A young man was left in the care of his grandmother after his mother died and his father was imprisoned. As a boy he suffered from meningitis, was treated for psychosis and depression and made repeated suicide attempts. He was later convicted of theft. Despite the man’s history of suicidal behaviour, a court held that he did not need to serve his sentence in a special institution.
Whilst in prison, his mental health got worse. He took an overdose of his medicine and died.
The court ruled that there had been clear failings in a system that had allowed a fragile prisoner, with deteriorating mental health, to get hold of a lethal dose of his medication and commit suicide.
The court ruled that the authorities had failed in their duty to protect the man’s life.
New rules were introduced to help prison staff prevent detainees committing suicide. These stated that strong drugs should only be given to prisoners in single doses. These included an Ordinance and an Instruction issued by the Director General of the Prison Service in August 2010; and an Ordinance adopted by the Minister of Justice in December 2010.
Gregor Šilih was 20 when he died in hospital. His parents believed that medical negligence was to blame. They launched legal action to find out the truth. Thirteen years later their claim had still not been resolved. The European court ruled that the authorities had failed to take effective steps to discover the truth. The case led to reforms to stop the same thing from happening again.
Elisaveta Talpis’s husband physically abused her for years. She complained to the police, but they took no action for months. One night Elisaveta’s husband attacked her with a knife, wounding her and killing her son when he tried to intervene. The European court condemned the police’s inaction, leading to reforms to address domestic violence in Italy.
Dana Kontrová repeatedly warned the police that her husband was violent and unstable. One day the police failed to take action after being told the man was threatening his family with a shotgun. Two days later he murdered his children before committing suicide. The European court ruled that the authorities had failed in their duty to protect the children, violating the right to life.
Poland
Slovenia
Italy
Slovak Republic