Bouamar v Belguim 11 EHRR 1 1987: Detention: educational supervision, detention of minors
FACTS:
The applicant, a minor at the time, during the relevant time was placed on remand in prison awaiting to be placed in a suitable institution. He filed this suit alleging violations of Articles 5(4), 5(1)(d), and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In addition he further alleged that the current procedures unlawfully discriminated against juvenile suspects.
Article 5(1) mandates that a deprivation of liberty must conform to requirements set in national law and must not be arbitrary. There being a controversy as to whether the concept of "material impossibility" justifying an interim custody order under Belgian law covered difficulties associated with the juvenile's personality in addition to the lack of accommodation in a juvenile institution, the Court could not in the applicant's case find the lack of compliance with national law.
Article 5(1) (d) does not preclude interim custody of being used as a preliminary measure to a regime of supervised education. In this case however, the applicant was moved back and forth between prison and his family and was never placed in an appropriate institution or under the supervision of educational facility. Thus, the interim prison terms in this case did not serve any educational aim. They also became less 'lawful' as the applicant continued to be imprisoned while no criminal proceedings were instituted against him.
The following cases are cited:
1. BOZANO V FRANCE (1987) 9 EHRR 297.
2. DE CUBBER V BELGIUM (1985) 7 EHRR 236.
3. DE JONG, BALJET AND VAN DER BRINK V BELGIUM (1986) 8 EHRR 20.
4. DE WILDE, OOMS AND VERSYP V BELGIUM 1 EHRR 373.
5. GUINCHO V PORTUGAL (1985) 7 EHRR 233.
6. GUZZARDI V ITALY 3 EHRR 223.
7. INZE V AUSTRIA.
8. Judgment of the Mons Court of Appeal of 6 January 1978, [1979] Journal des Tribunaux, 6.
9. Judgment of the Liege Court of Appeal of 16 December 1980.
10. Judgment of the Belgian Court of Cassation of 8 February 1978, [1978] I Pasicrisie belge 664.
11. Judgment of the Belgian Court of Cassation of 18 November 1982, [1983] I Pasicrisie belge 333.
12. LITHGOW AND OTHERS V UNITED KINGDOM (1986) 8 EHRR 329.
13. WINTERWERP V NETHERLANDS 2 EHRR 387.
14. VAN DROOGENBROECK V BELGIUM 4 EHRR 443.
15. WEEKS V UNITED KINGDOM.