Universal-MigrationHRlaw-PG-no-6-Publications-PractitionersGuide-2014-eng

MIGRATION AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW | 203
that less than three square metres of personal space per detainee is a
strong indication that conditions are degrading so as to violate Article 3
ECHR. 764 The Court has ruled, in the case of Aden Ahmed v. Malta, that,
in “deciding whether or not there has been a violation of Article 3 on
account of the lack of personal space, the Court has to have regard to
the following three elements:
(a) each detainee must have an individual sleeping place in the cell;
(b) each detainee must dispose of at least three square metres of
floor space; and
(c) the overall surface area of the cell must be such as to allow the
detainees to move freely between the furniture items.
The absence of any of the above elements creates in itself a strong
presumption that the conditions of detention amounted to degrading
treatment and were in breach of Article 3.
(d) Other aspects [. . .]”. 765
Where overcrowding is less severe, it may nevertheless lead to violations
of freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment when
considered in conjunction with other conditions of detention, including
poor ventilation or access to natural light or air, poor heating, inadequate
food, poor sanitation or lack of a minimum of privacy. 766 The
Inter-American Court has also held that severe overcrowding amounts
per se to “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, contrary to the dignity
inherent to human beings and, therefore, a violation to Article 5.2
of the American Convention.” 767
The UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment has held that “one of the most frequent
obstacles to the respect of the human dignity and to the prohibition
of torture and other forms of ill-treatment in places of detention
is overcrowding [and that] [t]his is particularly applicable in cases of
pre-trial detention and detention of children, asylum-seekers and refugees.”
768
764 Kantyrev v. Russia, ECtHR, Application No. 37213/02, Judgment of 21 June 2007, paras.
50–51; Labzov v. Russia, ECtHR, Application No. 62208/00, Judgment of 16 June 2005,
para. 44; Orchowski v. Poland, ECtHR, Application No. 17885/04, Judgment of 22 October
2009, para. 122.
765 Aden Ahmed v. Malta, ECtHR, Application No. 55352/12, Judgment of 23 July 2013, para. 87.
766 Orchowski v. Poland, ECtHR, op. cit., fn. 764, para. 122–123; Peers v. Greece, ECtHR, op. cit.,
fn. 406, paras. 70–72; Belevitskiy v. Russia, ECtHR, Application No. 72967/01, Judgment of
1 March 2007, paras. 73–79; Aden Ahmed v. Malta, ECtHR, op. cit., fn. 765, para. 88.
767 Montero-Aranguren et al (Detention Center of Catia) v. Venezuela, IACtHR, op. cit., fn. 761,
para. 91.
768 Theo Van Boven, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Annual Report to the Commission on
Human Rights, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2004/56, 23 December 2003, para. 49.