OMCT Publishes First Volume of the OMCT Handbook Series
Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights:
A Practitioner’s Handbook
by Uğur Erdal & Hasan Bakırcı
with a Preface by Sir Nigel Rodley
OMCT 2006 / ISBN 2-88477-110-7 / 374 pp / paperback / 40€
with Companion CD-Rom (in English & Russian)
The Book
This Practitioner’s Handbook is a publication of OMCT’s State Compliance Programme. Its purpose is to provide practical advice to persons wishing to bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. As such, the Handbook contains an accessible but comprehensive treatment of the procedure and practice of the European Court, as well as a detailed analysis of the Court’s jurisprudence in the area of torture and ill-treatment. Because this is an article-specific book, all areas of substance and procedure are discussed in the specific context of the Court’s Article 3 jurisprudence and special emphasis has been placed on providing strategic litigation advice in relation to matters which may pose particular challenges to Article 3 litigants. The Court’s evidential rules, and in particular, the “establishment of facts” and the shifting of the burden of proof in ill-treatment cases, are given careful attention. The meaning and scope of the terms “torture” and “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” are dealt with extensively, as is the Court’s practice in the area of interim measures, friendly settlement, and just satisfaction. Reference materials such as the Court’s Practice Directions, the Rules of Court, pleadings submitted in precedent cases, a model application and introductory letter based on hypothetical ill-treatment scenarios, have been included in the appendices and Textboxes.
This book will shortly be available in French, Russian and Turkish.