THE THIRD ARTICLE OF ECHR AND THE LEGAL PRACTICE OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS (English version)

Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits torture, and "inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment". There are no exceptions or limitations on this right. This provision usually applies, apart from torture, to cases of severe police violence and poor conditions in detention. The European Court of Human Rights has further held that this provision prohibits the extradition of a person to a foreign state if they are likely to be subjected there to torture. This article has been interpreted as prohibiting a state from extraditing an individual to another state if they are likely to suffer the death penalty. This article does not, however, on its own forbid a state from imposing the death penalty within its own territory. It imposes on a State both a negative and a positive obligation. In addition to the Convention, most Council of Europe states are also parties to the following treaties which all prohibit torture: the four 1949 Geneva Conventions, the 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 7: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, the 1984 UN Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the 1987 European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment.