Hearing at the
European Court of Human Rights: Rakevich v
Russia
(Application
No. 58973/00)
On 17 June 2003 the European Court of Human Rights
heard this case dealing with a complaint lodged by Mrs Rakevich claiming that
she was arbitrarily and unlawfully detained in a psychiatric hospital in Russia
and that there was a lack of speedy and adequate judicial review. This case is
significant in that it challenges many of the components of the Russian system
of involuntary placement in psychiatric hospitals and the Court�s decision has
the potential to lead to major changes of the Russian law and practice in this
area.
INTERIGHTS Legal Officers Borislav Petranov and Vesselina Vandova acted as advisers to Counsel Anna Demeneva.
In particular, the applicant claimed before the Court that:
1.
Her detention
was arbitrary and unlawful, as there was no emergency to
detain her, and she had not been shown to be of unsound mind by objective
medical evidence existing at the time of the detention.
2.
She was not
detained in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Russian law
and she argued that the law was violated on three counts:
(i)
the judicial decision approving her confinement was
delivered 39 days after she was detained, instead of within the 5 day time limit
as laid down in the law.
(ii)
the authorities had not explored alternatives to the
detention and Mrs Rakevich was not informed of the reasons for her confinement.
(iii)
the judicial examination in Mrs Rakevich�s case did
not provide the required guarantees against arbitrariness.
3.
That
under Article 5 (4) of the European
Convention for Human Rights, the judicial
proceedings were not speedy and, as a consequence, the applicant spent 39
days in detention without access to a court of law.
4.
That the
proceedings in this case also lacked essential elements of a fair
and transparent procedure, in three major respects � the applicant and her
representatives were denied access to the medical � and possibly other -
documentation serving as a basis of her involuntary hospitalisation, crucial
witnesses were not heard and the review of the courts was superficial to the
extreme.
5.
Finally, Mrs Rakevich challenged the absence
of an independent right to initiate proceedings herself to test the
lawfulness of her detention given her status as a patient detained
involuntarily.
Summary
of the facts:
On 26 September 1999, Mrs Rakevich was involuntarily hospitalised in Yekaterinburg City Psychiatric Hospital No. 26 in Russia. She had been brought to the hospital by an emergency ambulance team who had responded to a call from an acquaintance of hers and who stated to the team that Mrs Rakevich �had remained awake throughout the night studying the Bible and weeping�. Mrs Rakevich was diagnosed as having a grave mental disorder that manifested itself in her being a danger to herself. She had no history of mental illness. Two days later she was diagnosed by the medical commission of the hospital as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was said to be in need of compulsory treatment at the hospital.
On
5 November 1999, after 39 days of confinement, the Ordzhonekidzevskiy District
Court of Yekaterinburg confirmed that the detention had been necessary as the
applicant had suffered from an acute attack of paranoid schizophrenia. In its
findings the court relied exclusively on assertions by the hospital that the
applicant�s aggravated mental condition had put her physical integrity in
danger. Despite requests, the applicant�s representative did not have any
access to the report of the medical commission either before or after the
hearing.
On
24 December 1999, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court dismissed Mrs Rakevich's appeal
against the decision of the District Court, confirming the lawfulness of her
detention. It also established, however, that the applicant�s compulsory care
was no longer necessary as the applicant �had a job, was a single mother of a
schoolboy, and had already spent a considerable period of time in the
hospital�.
It
is expected that the Court will decide this case by October 2003.
For
more information, please write to:
Vesselina
Vandova, Legal Officer
Central and Eastern European Programme
INTERIGHTS
33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, UK
tel. (44 20) 7843 0480
fax (44 20) 7278 4334
e-mail: