European Court of Human RightsCase Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia

By Azuolas Bagdonas

1. Who?

• Mr. Nikolay Rantsev, is a Russian national who was born in 1938 and lives in Svetlogorsk, Russia

• He is the father of Ms Oxana Rantseva, also a Russian national, born in 1980, who died in strange and unestablished circumstances having fallen from a window of a private home in Cyprus in March 2001

2. What happened?• In March 2001, Oxana Rantseva started working as an artiste in a

cabaret in Cyprus• She stopped working 3 days later and said she was going back to

Russia• the cabaret manager found her and took her to a room on the sixth

floor of an apartment block in the evening• In the morning Ms Rantseva was found dead in the street below the

apartment• The Cypriot police investigated • The Cypriot court decided that Ms Rantseva died in strange

circumstances resembling an accident, in an attempt to escape from the apartment in which she was a guest no evidence that there was a crime

3. Which violation claimed?• Mr Rantsev complained against Cyprus:

– about the investigation into the circumstances of the death of his daughter

– about the failure of the Cypriot police to take measures to protect her while she was still alive

– about the failure of the Cypriot authorities to take steps to punish those responsible for her death and ill-treatment

– About failure of the Russian authorities to prevent human trafficking• Rantsev claimed that there had been a violation of the following

articles: – Articles 2 + 3 = right to life + prohibition of torture and inhuman and

degrading treatment– Articles 4, 5 and 8 Prohibition of slavery and forced labor + Right to

liberty and security + Right to respect for private and family life

4. What did the national court say?

• The Cypriot authorities made a unilateral declaration acknowledging that they had violated Articles 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Convention, offering to pay pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages to the applicant

• Russian authorities said that they had no responsibility for events taking place in Cyprus

5. What was the judgment of the ECHR?

• Russia violated Article 4 (prohibition of slavery) The ECHR said that trafficking started in Russia and that Russia failed to investigate it (e.g. who recruited Rantseva and what methods were used)

• Cyprus violated article 2 (right to life) because it did not investigate the death

• Cyprus violated article 4 (prohibition of slavery) because the laws are inadequate to prevent trafficking and because police did not protect Rantseva against trafficking

• Cyprus violated article 5 (right to liberty) because detention in the apartment had been arbitrary and unlawful

5. What was the judgment of the ECHR?

• Court ordered Russia to pay Rantseva’s father a moral compensation of EUR 2,000

• Court ordered Cyprus to pay a moral compensation of EUR 40,000 and to cover the expenses of EUR 3,150