Obligations of the Government Concerning Sex Offences According to the European Court of Human Rights Case-law

Abstract

Due to the special importance of the European Convention on Human Rights, the article discusses the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights regarding sexual offences, which establish violations of various rights protected under the Convention. In addition, it is mentioned in the article whether the practice of the national courts complies with the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights. The approaches of the ECtHR on this issue is very interesting, in particular, on the definition of the crime of rape, nonconsensual sexual intercourse and importance of protection of sexual autonomy. Furthermore, the judgments of the ECtHR related to the sexual offences are discussed, in particular violation of the right to respect for private life. As most of the violations in this category of cases are related to the Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, therefore the case-law of the ECtHR in this regard, especially in terms of the definition of torture and the ineffective investigation is the important component of the present publication. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the main challenges existing in the Georgian criminal law and practice regarding the implementation of the European Convention on Human rights on national level.