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Torture and inhuman and degrading treatment

01 January 1991

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Torture and inhuman and degrading treatment
bacdoc September=1992

Costello-Roberts v UK (8.10.91) No 13134/87
Y v UK (8.10.91) No 14229/88
European Commission on Human Rights

Facts

Both applicants were sent to private schools and were subjected
to corporal punishment.

Decision

In the first case, the commission found that `three smacks on the
buttocks, through shorts, with a soft-soled shoe, apparently
causing no visible injury' did not come within treatment pro-
scribed by article 3. However, the commission found that, merely
by enroling the child in a private school, parents did not waive
the child's right under article 8 to respect for his physical
dignity. Because the interference with this right (by
`slippering') was not justified by the government on social,
educational, health or moral grounds, it violated the terms of
article 8.
In the second case, the applicant was hit with such force with
a cane that four weals appeared on his buttocks, with swelling
and bruising, causing considerable pain for some time. The
punishment was inflicted because the applicant was bullying
others. The commission decided that this constituted degrading
treatment and punishment. Because it found a violation of article
3, the commission did not go on to examine article 8.

EC Europe Law Civil liberties

Legal Action, John Wadham (legal officer Liberty)

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