| Applicant name | EK |
| Applicant type | natural person |
| Number of applicants | 1 |
| Country | LATVIA |
| Application no. | 25942/20 |
| Date | 13/04/2023 |
| Judges | Georges Ravarani, President, Mārtiņš Mits, Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, Lado Chanturia, María Elósegui, Mattias Guyomar, Kateřina Šimáčková, |
| Institution | Court |
| Type | Judgment |
| Outcome Art. 8 | Violation |
| Reason | Positive obligation |
| Type of privacy | Relational privacy; procedural privacy |
| Keywords | Access to child |
| Facts of the case | The case concerns a complaint about non-enforcement of a judgment granting the applicant contact rights with his daughter, allegedly in breach of his right to respect for his family life guaranteed under Article 8 of the Convention. |
| Analysis | The case concerns separated parents who have shared custody of their daughter. The domestic courts made an interim order determining the applicant’s contact rights, but the applicant could not exercise those rights. The Court accepts that the domestic authorities and courts were faced with an undeniably complex situation which merited serious consideration. But it finds it difficult to accept that there were prevented from deciding whether the ex of the applicant had failed to comply with the Judgment and whether she was liable to pay a fine for non-compliance. The domestic court concluded that no interference wa srequired despite its finding that the mother was not sufficiently facilitating the exercise of contact and had not taken any active steps in that regard. The court did not consider it necessary to order the other steps sought by the applicant with a view to facilitating contact and reconciling the conflicting interests of the parties. The Court also draws attention to the delays in the decision-making process and the handling of the situation. |
| Other Article violation? | No |
| Damage awarded | a) that the respondent State is to pay the applicant, within three months from the date on which the judgment becomes final in accordance with Article 44 § 2 of the Convention, the following amounts: (i) EUR 10,000 (ten thousand euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable, in respect of non-pecuniary damage; (ii) EUR 1,060 (one thousand and sixty euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicant, in respect of costs and expenses; (iii) that from the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amounts at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points; |
| Documents | Judgment |