European Court of Human Rights

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> European Court of Human Rights >> Lebbink v the Netherlands - 45582/99 [2010] ECHR 1418 (15 September 2010)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2010/1418.html
Cite as: [2010] ECHR 1418

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Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)104¹

Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights

Lebbink against the Netherlands

(Application No. 45582/99, judgment of 1 June 2004, final on 1 September 2004)

The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” and “the Court”);

Having regard to the judgment in this case, transmitted by the Court to the Committee once it had become final;

Recalling that the violation of the Convention found by the Court in this case concerns the applicant’s denial to access by the applicant to his child although ties amounting to family life existed between them (violation of Article 8) (see details in Appendix);

Having invited the government of the respondent state to inform the Committee of the measures taken to comply with its obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to abide by the judgment;

Having examined the information provided by the government in accordance with the Committee’s Rules for the application of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention;

Having satisfied itself that, within the time-limit set, the respondent state paid the applicant the just satisfaction provided in the judgment (see details in Appendix),

Recalling that a finding of violations by the Court requires, over and above the payment of just satisfaction awarded by the Court in its judgments, the adoption by the respondent state, where appropriate:

- of individual measures to put an end to the violations and erase their consequences so as to achieve as far as possible restitutio in integrum; and

- of general measures, preventing similar violations;

DECLARES, having examined the measures taken by the respondent state (see Appendix), that it has exercised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in this case and

DECIDES to close the examination of this case.

Appendix to Resolution CM/ResDH(2010)104

Information about the measures to comply with the judgment in the case of

Lebbink against the Netherlands

Introductory case summary

The case concerns the Dutch courts' refusal to grant the applicant access to his nine-year-old child, in 1998, on the grounds that there was no family life between them (violation of Article 8).

The European Court observed that the applicant had never formally acknowledged his paternity of the child, who was born out of wedlock in 1995, that he had never cohabited with the child's mother and that his relationship with her had broken down in August 1996. It found nonetheless that certain ties existed between the applicant and the child, which constituted “family life” (the applicant having been present at the birth of the child and visited mother and child regularly during approximately one and a half years, baby-sat and cared for the child a few times, etc.).

I. Payment of just satisfaction and individual measures

a) Details of just satisfaction

Pecuniary damage	Non-pecuniary damage	Costs and expenses	Total
-	5 000 EUR	2 500 EUR	7 500 EUR
Paid on 23/08/2004

b) Individual measures

The applicant initiated domestic proceedings to obtain visiting rights. Given the direct effect of the European Court's judgments in the Netherlands and the fact that the domestic court took formal note of the judgment of the Court before starting its examination on the merits, it may be concluded that the existence of family life between the applicant and his child has been recognised, irrespective of the outcome of the proceedings in question. This understanding was shared by the applicant’s lawyer. Consequently, no other individual measure was considered necessary by the Committee of Ministers.

II. General measures

Given the status of the Convention and of the Court’s case-law in the Netherlands law, as evidenced by the domestic proceedings in this case (see above), it is expected that the domestic courts will align their practice with the Convention's requirements as regards the interpretation of the notion of ‘family life’.

Furthermore, the Court’s judgment was sent out to the domestic judiciary and published in several legal journals in the Netherlands, such as NJB (2004, 1753), Nederlandse Jurisprudentie (2004, 667), Rechtspraak Familierecht (2004, 1) and European Human Rights Cases (2004, 68).

III. Conclusions of the respondent state

The government considers that the measures taken have fully remedied the consequences for the applicant of the violation of the Convention found by the Court in this case, that these measures will prevent similar violations and that the Netherlands have thus complied with their obligations under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention.