THE PROHIBITION OF TORTURE – CASES VERSUS MACEDONIA IN FRONT OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract

Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
(the Convention) contains the so-called “Prohibition of torture” stipulated as “No one shall be
subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”. Despite the fact that it is one
of the shortest provisions in the entire text of the Convention (consisting of exactly 15 words), it does
not mean that the provided prohibition should not be taken seriously. On the contrary – the States are
obliged to respect both obligations set by Article 3, i.e. negative obligation (to refrain from taking the
said acts) and positive obligation (to take any appropriate actions aimed to secure and protect the
persons from the said acts, as well as to investigate allegations for performing such acts and to sanction
their perpetrators).
Having in mind that in 1997 the Macedonian Assembly adopted the Law on Ratification of the
Convention, the Paper shall focus on the several cases that target Article 3. Namely, if Article 3 is
chosen as a search criteria through the HUDOC database, which provides access to the case law, 14
Macedonian cases until 30 June 2020 are found as a result of the search. Therefore, the Paper shall
provide a theoretical and critical overview of Article 3, to the 14 judgements that address the Republic
of North Macedonia, as well as to the other relevant documents.