| Applicant name | PETROVIĆ AND OTHERS |
| Applicant type | natural person |
| Number of applicants | 3 |
| Country | Croatia |
| Application no. | 32514/22 33284/22 15910/23 |
| Date | 14/01/2025 |
| Judges | Arnfinn Bårdsen, President, Saadet Yüksel, Pauliine Koskelo, Jovan Ilievski, Davor Derenčinović, Gediminas Sagatys, Stéphane Pisani |
| Institution | Court |
| Type | Judgment |
| Outcome Art. 8 | violation |
| Reason | Positive obligation |
| Type of privacy | Procedural privacy; private life |
| Keywords | Access to information |
| Facts of the case | The applicants, suspecting that their babies had not died in State-run hospitals as they had been told, complained about the respondent State’s continuing failure to provide them with information about the real fate of their children. |
| Analysis | The Court notes that the applicants had no other means of ascertaining the fate of their babies, although it appears that there are other women besides the three applicants who suspect that their babies were abducted in the 1980s and early 1990s in State-run hospitals in Croatia, some of whom were transferred from a hospital in Croatia to a hospital in Novi Sad in Serbia (see paragraph 10 above), and that the authorities were aware of the phenomenon of “missing babies” in Croatian hospitals since at least 2019. The foregoing considerations are sufficient to enable the Court to conclude that the respondent State has failed to fulfil its continuing positive obligation under Article 8 of the Convention with regard to the applicants’ allegations that their babies were abducted from maternity hospitals and were given up for unlawful adoption. There has accordingly been a violation of Article 8 of the Convention. |
| Other Article violation? | No need to examine 13 echr |
| Damage awarded | Holds (a) that the respondent State is to pay each applicant, within three months from the date on which the judgment becomes final in accordance with Article 44 § 2 of the Convention, EUR 2,000 (two thousand euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants, in respect of costs and expenses; (b) that from the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amount at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points; |
| Documents | Judgment |