Lapsen huostaanotto ei ollut EIS:n vastainen kun kumpikin vanhemmista oli pidätetty toisiinsa kohdistamien rikosten johdosta

Placement in care and mother’s contact rights decided on basis of child’s best interests: no violation of Article 8 of the Convention

In today’s Chamber judgment in the case of G.M. v. France (application no. 25075/18) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:

• no violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case concerned the taking into care of the applicant’s child, then an infant, by the Child Welfare Authority, and the limitation of the applicant’s contact rights. The Court began by noting that the child’s placement with the Child Welfare Authority had been ordered as an urgent measure on the application of the public prosecutor after both parents had been taken into police custody, following complaints they had lodged against each other, and in the light of the danger the child would face if remaining in the family home. The Court further emphasised that the domestic courts had based their decisions on the various findings of all the child protection workers and independent care-providing entities and had conducted a full balancing exercise, weighing up the child’s interests on the one hand and those of the applicant, on the other, both when maintaining the placement measure and when deciding on the contact rights.

Lastly, the Court found that, when seen overall, the decision-making process had been surrounded by the procedural safeguards required by the protection of the applicant’s interests. The Court concluded that the national authorities, while remaining within their margin of appreciation, had taken the measures that could be reasonably expected of them in order to guarantee respect for the child’s best interests, without any excessive interference with the applicant’s right to respect for her private and family life.

G.M. v. France