The case concerns a racially motivated attack on a 16-year-old Ukrainian citizen of Afro-Ukrainian descent in a Kyiv metro station in 2015. A group of around twenty people verbally abused him with racist slurs and subsequently physically assaulted him, resulting in various injuries.The Court found that Ukraine violated Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) in conjunction with Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the Convention due to the failure to conduct an effective investigation into the racist attack. The Court awarded the applicant EUR 4,500 in non-pecuniary damages and EUR 1,200 for costs and expenses.The key elements of the decision include:
- The Court determined that the physical suffering, combined with the victim’s age and racist motives, was serious enough to fall under Article 3 of the Convention
- The investigation was found to be ineffective due to several failures:
- Delayed forensic medical examination that failed to properly document injuries
- Lack of follow-up after identifying one of the perpetrators
- Three-year delay in ordering linguistic examination of racist statements
- Failure to properly investigate racist motives despite evidence
- The Court emphasized the state’s obligation to unmask possible racist motives in such cases and conduct thorough investigations when evidence of racist verbal abuse emerges
The most significant provisions of this decision relate to the Court’s emphasis on the state’s obligation to effectively investigate hate crimes, particularly when involving minors, and the requirement to thoroughly examine potential racist motives when evidence of discriminatory behavior exists.
