European Court of Human Rights Case Rantsev v. Cyprus and Russia By Azuolas Bagdonas

1. Who? Mr. Nikolay Rantsev, is a Russian national who was born in 1938 and lives in Svetlogorsk, Russia He is the father of Ms Oxana Rantseva, also a Russian national, born in 1980, who died in strange and unestablished circumstances having fallen from a window of a private home in Cyprus in March 2001

2. What happened? In March 2001, Oxana Rantseva started working as an artiste in a cabaret in Cyprus She stopped working 3 days later and said she was going back to Russia the cabaret manager found her and took her to a room on the sixth floor of an apartment block in the evening In the morning Ms Rantseva was found dead in the street below the apartment The Cypriot police investigated The Cypriot court decided that Ms Rantseva died in strange circumstances resembling an accident, in an attempt to escape from the apartment in which she was a guest  no evidence that there was a crime

3. Which violation claimed? Mr Rantsev complained against Cyprus: – about the investigation into the circumstances of the death of his daughter – about the failure of the Cypriot police to take measures to protect her while she was still alive – about the failure of the Cypriot authorities to take steps to punish those responsible for her death and ill-treatment – About failure of the Russian authorities to prevent human trafficking Rantsev claimed that there had been a violation of the following articles: – Articles = right to life + prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment – Articles 4, 5 and 8  Prohibition of slavery and forced labor + Right to liberty and security + Right to respect for private and family life

4. What did the national court say? The Cypriot authorities made a unilateral declaration acknowledging that they had violated Articles 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the Convention, offering to pay pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages to the applicant Russian authorities said that they had no responsibility for events taking place in Cyprus

5. What was the judgment of the ECHR? Russia violated Article 4 (prohibition of slavery)  The ECHR said that trafficking started in Russia and that Russia failed to investigate it (e.g. who recruited Rantseva and what methods were used) Cyprus violated article 2 (right to life) because it did not investigate the death Cyprus violated article 4 (prohibition of slavery) because the laws are inadequate to prevent trafficking and because police did not protect Rantseva against trafficking Cyprus violated article 5 (right to liberty) because detention in the apartment had been arbitrary and unlawful

5. What was the judgment of the ECHR? Court ordered Russia to pay Rantseva’s father a moral compensation of EUR 2,000 Court ordered Cyprus to pay a moral compensation of EUR 40,000 and to cover the expenses of EUR 3,150