Corte EDU, sez. II, 23/03/2013, ricorso n. 33234/07, Valiulienė c. Lituania

La Corte europea si è pronunciata sul ricorso di una donna vittima di violenza domestica, che lamentava l’inattività delle autorità nazionali. La Corte europea ha accertato la violazione dell’art. 3 CEDU (Divieto di tortura), a motivo dell’inadeguatezza delle misure previste dall’ordinamento nazionale, ritenute inadeguate a proteggere la donna ricorrente, e dell’inerzia delle autorità nazionali nell’avviare e svolgere le indagini. Interessante ricordare l’opinione concorrente del giudice Pinto de Albuquerque, che ha significativamente osservato che: «the full effect utile of the European Convention on Human Rights can only be achieved with a gender-sensitive interpretation and application of its provisions which takes in account the factual inequalities between women and men and the way they impact on women’s lives. In that light, it is self-evident that the very act of domestic violence has an inherent humiliating and debasing character for the victim … It is precisely this intrinsic element of humiliation that attracts the applicability of Article 3 of the Convention. The imputation of an Article 8 violation would fall short of the real and full meaning of violence in the domestic context, and would thus fail to qualify as a “gendered understanding of violence”».