Aerts v. Belgium
Country: BelgiumYear: 1998
Court: European Court of Human Rights
Citation: Application No. 25357/94; (1998) 29 EHRR 50; [1998] ECHR 64; 5 BHRC 382; [1998] HRCD 749; (2000) 53 BMLR 79
Health Topics: Controlled substances, Health care and health services, Mental health, Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to due process/fair trial, Right to liberty and security of person
Michael Aerts, complained his continued detention in the psychiatric wing of a prison pending his transfer to the Social Protection Centre breached the right to liberty and security of person in article 5(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the right to fair hearing under article 6(1) of the ECHR, and the prohibition …Read more
Finn v. Jamaica
Country: JamaicaYear: 1998
Court: United Nations Human Rights Committee
Citation: Communication No. 617/1995
Health Topics: Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to due process/fair trial, Right to liberty and security of person
Finn (F) was arrested in 1987 and alleged that he was beaten on his way to the police lock up. He also alleged that threats were then made against his life and that he was given no medical treatment. F claimed that complaints about this ill treatment were not responded to. He was charged, together …Read more
Fisher v. The Minister of Public Safety and Immigration and Others (No. 2)
Country: BahamasYear: 1998
Court: Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
Citation: [1998] 3 LRC 451, [1999] 2 WLR 349, (1998) 6 BHRC 244, (1998) 2
Health Topics: Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to life
The appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1994. In 1996, he lodged a petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACmHR). Although The Bahamas ratified the Charter of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in 1982, it has never ratified the American Convention on Human Rights. However, Article 51 of …Read more
International Pen and Others. on Behalf of Saro Wiwa v. Nigeria
Country: NigeriaYear: 1998
Court: African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights
Citation: AHRLR 212 (ACHPR 1998); Communications 137/94, 139/94, 154/96 and 161/97
Health Topics: Health care and health services, Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Freedom of association, Freedom of expression, Right of access to information, Right to acquire nationality, Right to due process/fair trial, Right to health, Right to liberty and security of person, Right to life
S, a writer and president of an Ogoni people’s movement, and L (the movement’s vice-president) were arrested in May 1994 after the murder of four Ogoni leaders following a riot which had occurred during a meeting organized by the movement. It was alleged that S was severely beaten during the first days of his detention …Read more
Pennsylvania v. Yeskey
Country: United StatesYear: 1998
Court: Supreme Court
Citation: 524 U.S. 206 (1998)
Health Topics: Chronic and noncommunicable diseases, Disabilities, Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from discrimination
The Respondent, Yeskey, brought this claim against Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections alleging that his exclusion from a prison Motivational Boot Camp because of his medical history of hypertension violated the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). ADA Title II prohibited a “public entity” from discriminating, excluding or denying benefits to a “qualified individual with …Read more
Shaw v. Jamaica
Country: JamaicaYear: 1998
Court: United Nations Human Rights Committee
Citation: Communication No 704/1996, Views of the UNHRC, 2 April 1998
Health Topics: Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to due process/fair trial, Right to life
Shaw (S) was arrested for the murder of a family and allegedly acknowledged his involvement in the killings in an interview preceding a caution statement. He claimed that he was not charged with murder until nineteen days later (although it appeared from the file that the delay was actually nine days) and that he was …Read more
Taylor (Desmond) v. Jamaica
Country: JamaicaYear: 1998
Court: United Nations Human Rights Committee
Citation: Communication No 705/1996, Views of the UNHRC, 2 April 1998
Health Topics: Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to due process/fair trial, Right to life
Taylor (T), P (his brother) and S were charged with murdering four persons in May 1992 and were convicted and sentenced to death in July 1994. T claimed that the two years and three months spent in pre-trial detention was unreasonable, given that the primary evidence against him was a statement made by S. He …Read more
B and Others v. Minister of Correctional Services and Others
Country: South AfricaYear: 1997
Court: High Court - Cape of Good Hope Provincial Division
Citation: 1997 (4) SA 441 (C); 1997 (6) BCLR 789 (C)
Health Topics: Health care and health services, Health systems and financing, HIV/AIDS, Infectious diseases, Medicines, Poverty, Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to health
The Applicants were four prisoners living with HIV. They sought an order declaring that prisoners living with HIV who had reached the symptomatic stage of the disease and whose CD4 counts was less than 500 per milliliter of blood were entitled to receive appropriate antiretroviral treatment at the Government’s expense. They noted that Section 35(2)(e) …Read more
Loayza-Tamayo v. Peru
Country: PeruYear: 1997
Court: Inter-American Court of Human Rights
Health Topics: Mental health, Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
Loayza Tamayo (L) had allegedly been confined in a tiny prison cell for twenty-three and a half hours a day for one year. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had requested provisional measures whereby Peru would be requested to end her solitary confinement and incommunicado detention and to return her to the pavilion of the prison …Read more
Salvatori Abuki and Richard Abuga v. Attorney General
Country: UgandaYear: 1997
Court: Constitutional Court at Kampala
Citation: [1997] UGCC 5; Constitutional Case No. 2 of 1997
Health Topics: Prisons
Human Rights: Freedom from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, Freedom of movement and residence, Freedom of religion, Right to due process/fair trial, Right to housing, Right to life, Right to property
The petitioners, Salvatori Abuki and Richard Obuga, brought a constitutional challenge against their convictions in a Magistrates’ Court for the practice of witchcraft. (Richard Obuga died before the hearing on the petition began leaving only one petitioner, Abuki.) The petitioner was arrested on a complaint of witchcraft and charged with practicing witchcraft in contravention of …Read more