This judgment concerns three cases of women who suspect their newborn babies were abducted from Croatian state hospitals between 1986-1994 and given up for unlawful adoption. The Court found Croatia violated Article 8 of the Convention (right to respect for private and family life) by failing to provide the mothers with credible information about their children’s fate.The key aspects of the decision are:
- The Court established that cases of allegedly abducted newborns constitute a continuing violation that persists as long as authorities fail to account for the children’s fate
- Croatia had positive obligations to investigate what happened to the babies while they were still in Croatian hospitals, even for cases where children were transferred to Serbia
- The Croatian authorities’ response was inadequate as they mainly cited statute of limitations and failed to properly investigate inconsistencies in medical records or conduct DNA tests
- The Court ordered Croatia to establish within one year a special mechanism supervised by an independent body to investigate all similar cases and provide redress to affected parents
The Court’s main findings were that:
- Croatia failed its continuing positive obligation to provide credible information about the fate of allegedly abducted babies
- The State’s response of only providing available documentation was insufficient given the inconsistencies in records
- Authorities improperly dismissed complaints based on statute of limitations without considering the continuing nature of the violations
- A systemic solution is needed given evidence of other similar cases in Croatia from the 1980s-90s
The Court ordered Croatia to establish within one year a mechanism to:
- Provide individual redress to all parents in similar situations
- Be supervised by an independent body with adequate investigative powers
- Be capable of providing credible answers about each child’s fate
- Award compensation as appropriate
