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Lingurar v. Romania, dec., No. 48474/14, ECtHR (Fourth Section Committee), 16 April 2019

Abstract

Prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment. Violent behavior by police officers driven by ethnic or racial biases. Prohibition of discrimination. Ethnic profiling. 

Normative references

Art. 3 ECHR 
Art. 14 ECHR

Ruling

1. The violent behavior by police officers during a raid against the local Roma community constitutes inhuman or degrading treatment pursuant to Art. 3 ECHR (case in which the police had raided a house and some members of the family, completely unrelated to the commission of crimes, had suffered injuries worthy of medical care).
2. The planning and execution of a police raid against the Roma community – justified on the basis of an alleged connection between ethnicity and criminal behavior – amount to racial profiling, contrary to the prohibition of discrimination enshrined in Art. 14 ECHR.