Human
rights news: July 2004
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15 July 2004 |
:: NEWS :: |
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Nachova and Others v Bulgaria referred to European Court Grand Chamber |
Additional information: Bulgaria convicted of violating right
to life Judgments of the European Court concerning Bulgaria
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The Grand Chamber panel of five judges has accepted the case of Nachova and Others v. Bulgaria for referral to the Grand Chamber of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case was referred to the Grand Chamber at the Government's request. The case concerns the killing of the applicants' relatives, Kuncho Angelov and Kiril Petkov, by a military policeman who was trying to arrest them. In a judgment of 26 February 2004 (see press release 094), the European Court of Human Rights held that there had been two violations of Article 2 (right to life) of the Convention concerning the shooting of the applicants' relatives and concerning the lack of an effective investigation into their deaths. The Court further held that there had been violations of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination), taken together with Article 2, concerning the lack of an investigation into whether discriminatory attitudes played a role in the shootings; and, concerning the shootings themselves. Then, for the first time in its history, the European Court of Human
Rights ruled that there had been a violation of the procedural and substantive
aspects of the guarantee against racial discrimination, contained in article
14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the ECHR in conjunction with article
2, which protects the right to life. |