The prohibition of torture - European Court of Human Rights

63 7th General Report of the
CPT (1997), para. 13: “The
CPT has been led to conclude
on more than one occasion
that the adverse effects
of overcrowding have resulted
in inhuman and degrading
conditions of
detention.”
64 The CPT has highlighted this
specifically with reference to
hygiene needs of women.
10th General Report of the
CPT, para. 31: “The specific
hygiene needs of women
should be addressed in an adequate
manner. Ready access
to sanitary and washing facilities,
safe disposal arrangements
… as well as provision
of hygiene items, such as sanitary
towels and tampons, are
of particular importance. The
failure to provide such basic
necessities can amount, in
itself, to degrading
treatment.”
65 3rd General Report of the
CPT (1993), para. 30: “An inadequate
level of health care
can lead rapidly to situations
falling within the scope of
the term ‘inhuman and degrading
treatment’.”
66 Hurtado v. Switzerland,
Comm. Report of 8 July
1993, Series A no. 280, p.
16, §79.
Specific situations and practices which may
be deemed to be degrading under Article 3, either
alone or in combination, are: overcrowding, 63 lack
of outdoor exercise for all prisoners, lack of contact
with the outside world, inadequate standards
of hygiene and toilet facilities, 64 and lack of adequate
medical or dental care. 65 Authorities are
Detention on medical grounds
In particular, the assessment of whether the
treatment or punishment concerned is incompatible
with the standards of Article 3 has, in the case
of mentally ill persons, to take into consideration
their vulnerability and their inability, in some cases,
to complain coherently or at all about how they are
being affected by any particular treatment. 68
In a case against the United Kingdom, the
Court found that the lack of effective monitoring of
the victim’s condition and the lack of informed psychiatric
input into his assessment and treatment
disclosed significant defects in the medical care
provided to a mentally ill person known to be a suicide
risk.
The belated imposition on him of a serious disciplinary
punishment – seven days’ segregation in
the punishment block and an additional 28 days
added to his sentence, imposed two weeks after
under an obligation to protect the health of persons
deprived of liberty. 66 The lack of appropriate
medical treatment may amount to treatment contrary
to Article 3. 67
the event and only nine days before his expected
date of release – may well have threatened his physical
and moral resistance and was not compatible
with the standard of treatment required in respect
of a mentally ill person. The Court considered that
it must be regarded as constituting inhuman and
degrading treatment and punishment within the
meaning of Article 3 of the Convention. 69
In the context of psychiatric detention, in a
case against Austria from 1983, Mr Herczegfalvy
complained that his medical treatment violated Article
3, in that he had been forcibly administered
food and medicines, isolated, and attached with
handcuffs to a security bed. Although the Commission
considered that the manner in which the treatment
was administered had not complied with the
requirements of Article 3, in that the measures had
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