Non-execution of a father’s court communication decision with his daughter. Violation of family life
JUDGMENT
Vyshnyakov v. Ukraine 19.07.2018 (no. 25612/12)
SUMMARY
The right of communication between a father and his daughter. Court decision to see his daughter three times a week, which has not been repeatedly applied because of the negation of the mother and ex-wife. Infringement of the applicant’s family life due to the failure of the national authorities to enforce the judgment of the Court regarding the communication between the applicant and his minor daughter.
PROVISION
Article 8
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicant, Sergiy Vyshnyakov, is a Ukrainian national who was born in 1973 and lives in Mykolayiv (Ukraine). The case concerned access rights to his daughter after his divorce from the mother in 2009.
In June 2009, following the divorce, the domestic courts granted Mr Vyshnyakov the right to see his two-year old daughter three times per week. He has since attempted to enforce this judgment on a number of occasions, without success. On the first occasion, in the autumn of 2009, the bailiffs did not make any enforcement arrangements because the procedure was not specified by law. On the second occasion, in 2012, the bailiff considered that the June 2009 judgment had been fully enforced after he had read out the operative part to the mother. This decision was then upheld by the courts.
Mr Vyshnyakov brought a number of other proceedings to complain about the mother’s refusal to comply with the judgment, as well as a claim for damages, all to no avail. He repeatedly complained to the police.
In 2014 he also asked the courts to change his daughter’s residence to Mykolayiv, where he lives, because the mother and daughter had in the meantime moved 600 kilometres away to Selydove, in the Donetsk Region. However, the courts dismissed his claim, rejecting his arguments that he was in a better financial situation than the mother, who was unemployed, and that Selydove was in a conflict zone and dangerous for the child.
Mr Vyshnyakov complained in particular about the domestic courts’ failure to enforce the court judgment granting him access rights to his daughter. This complaint was examined under Article 8 (right to family life) of the European Convention.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Violation of Article 8
Just satisfaction: EUR 7,500 (non-pecuniary damage) and EUR 1,000 (costs and expenses)(echrcaselaw.com editing).
