Jugendamtsterror und Familienrechtsverbrechen

Martin MITCHELL

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MENSCHENRECHTE UND HUMANITÄRES VÖLKERRECHT

„Niemand darf der Folter oder unmenschlicher oder erniedrigender Strafe oder Behandlung unterworfen werden.“

Nicht nur der Staat, die BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND, muß sich an den "Internationalen Pakt für bürgerliche und politische Rechte" halten, aber auch der Staat, AUSTRALIEN (und auch der australische Bundesstaat VICTORIA), ist ohne Ausnahme jedem seiner Bürger gegenüber dazu verpflichtet.

The UN Human Rights Council / The UN Human Rights Committee

United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC)
≈ UN Menschenrechtsausschuss ≈ Ausschuss für Menschenrechte der Vereinten Nationen

UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (CCPR) =
Internationale Pakt für bürgerliche und politische Rechte

Der UN Menschenrechtsausschuss ist ein bedeutendes Organ, das für die Beachtung und Durchsetzung von Menschenrechten auf internationaler Ebene von entscheidender Bedeutung ist.

[ … the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), … ]

Zitat:

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ABC @ www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s3998348.htm

Justice for woman bashed by police 20 years ago.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 05/05/2014
Reporter: Louise Milligan

A Melbourne woman bashed by police in her own home has had the United Nations Human Rights Committee hand down a landmark ruling in her 20-year fight for justice.

Transcript

SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: A United Nations human rights committee has castigated the Victorian Government and police over the case of a woman who was bashed senseless by police officers. A group of police broke into Corinna Horvath's home without a warrant and beat her unconscious. When she sued for damages, the state denied liability, saying it was not responsible for police who acted outside the line of duty. Now, more than 20 years later, the UN committee has found in a landmark ruling that the State of Victoria breached the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and must pay compensation. Louise Milligan has this report.

LOUISE MILLIGAN, REPORTER: It's 18 years since the event that changed Corinna Horvath's life.

CORINNA HORVATH: For the first few years, I was very withdrawn. I was very nervy. It was hard. And I was scared all the time.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: This picture shows why she was so frightened, her nose smashed by a blow from a baton, her mouth gushing with clotted blood.

CORINNA HORVATH: My face was beaten to a pulp, my nose was broken, suspected broken jaw.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: The injuries to the 21-year-old were not meted out by street thugs. The blows were delivered by Victoria Police officers.

TAMAR HOPKINS, FLEMINGTON/KENSINGTON COMMUNITY LEGAL CENTRE: It's absolutely disgraceful what happened to Corinna. She was beaten senseless by officers who had no reason to do what they were doing.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Corinna Horvath's life has changed completely since then and she now devotes her time to rescuing horses.

CORINNA HORVATH: I'm a mum of three now. I've grown up. I do a lot on my own property. And, yeah, I'm a changed person from back then.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Back then, Horvath was, by her own admission, something of a wild child. She and her boyfriend Craig Love lived in Summerville on Melbourne's southern fringe, partied hard and didn't like cops.

CORINNA HORVATH: Me and Craig were raided every now and then. We smoked a little bit of dope back then and so they would come in and they would get us for the little bit of dope that we had. So, they were doing that on a regular basis.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: On March 8, 1996, Horvath and Love were pulled over at a service station at nearby Hastings by a police officer she'd had several run-ins with before. The constable slapped an "unroadworthy" sticker on her car. As the police officer spoke to her, an angry Corinna Horvath turned up the car radio in defiance.

After the officer left, she drove home.

The next evening, Constable David Jenkin and his partner, Stephen Davison, turned up at Corinna Horvath's home, wanting to see her car. She declined and they began to struggle.

CORINNA HORVATH: Well I grabbed him to stop - I just put my hands up to stop him from going around the back. ... He left hand marks, finger marks around my neck, and by memory, I'd ripped his shirt.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Later that night, eight officers turned up at Corinna Horvath's home.

CORINNA HORVATH: And all I remember hearing was, "We want Corinna". It was just bang, bang, bang. And I just thought, "S**t". I packed myself.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Despite not having a warrant, Constable Jenkin and the other officers broke down the door and charged through the house.

CORINNA HORVATH: He made a V-Line straight for me, apparently. Didn't worry about anyone else. He knew exactly who he wanted; he wanted me.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Corinna Horvath doesn't remember what happened next, but several witnesses described it in court.

CORINNA HORVATH: Jenkin had handcuffed me and he had punched me in the face probably close to a dozen times while I was handcuffed and he was on my back. And Sergeant Christensen had walked past and smacked me in the nose with a baton and that's where my nose split. ... So, yeah, between the pair of them, they'd got into me good and proper.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Corinna Horvath was arrested for resisting police and then taken by ambulance to hospital.

11 charges laid against her laid by the police that night were all thrown out. The court learned of the officers fabricated evidence.

TAMAR HOPKINS: The police had lied on matters of major significance and also had in fact lied to the Ethical Standards Department as part of the original disciplinary process that they went through.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Corinna Horvath sued. She and others injured that night won, with the court awarding more than $300,000 in damages. The judge was scathing about police.

CORINNA HORVATH: (Reading from judge's judgement) "And I find that Jenkin in his conduct showed the most high-handed approach accompanied by excessive and unnecessary violence, wrought out of motives of ill will and a desire to get even."

LOUISE MILLIGAN: But that was not the end of the matter. The police wouldn't pay.

DYSON HORE-LACY, BARRISTER: These police officers, I've got to say, one went bankrupt - the main offender [Jenkin] went bankrupt and the other three officers all cried poor; they had no money.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Despite the brutality of the police officers' actions, the State of Victoria appealed on the basis it wasn't liable to pay compensation because the police acted outside the realm of their duties and the state won, so Corinna Horvath did not receive her damages.

CORINNA HORVATH: Where's the assault charges? If it's that bad and they acted out of the scope of their duty, where is the assault charges that Jenkin, Davison, Christensen should be suffering?

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Corinna Horvath's solicitor, Tamar Hopkins, says her case is not unique.

TAMAR HOPKINS: Unfortunately, time and time again, stories of heavy-handed, violent treatment meted out against people who've been arrested by police are told to community legal centres, lawyers, barristers across this state.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: In 2008, Corinna Horvath's lawyers took her case to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. Six years later, the committee has decided: Australia has violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the state must pay compensation to Corinna Horvath, must review its legislation, must tell the UN how it's going to remedy this situation and must widely disseminate this decision. "A State cannot elude its responsibility for violations of the Covenant committed by its own agents."

DYSON HORE-LACY: It's a vindication of the stance that we took that Victoria was a signatory to the covenant. It agreed to abide by its terms and it wasn't just something that applied to African countries or other countries and not us; it applied to us as well. And we could do to look in our own backyard.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: In December [2014], the law will change to mean that if a claimant against a police officer who acts wrongfully on the job is unlikely to ever get their money and has exhausted all avenues, then the state must pay. Lawyers say this will still be an expensive and lengthy process.

None of the officers who beat Corinna Horvath lost their jobs. In fact, they were all promoted and two are still working for Victoria Police.

TAMAR HOPKINS: It's an extraordinary contradiction that the state would say that the officers were behaving with such wilful disregard and disrespect for a person and yet continue to employ them.

LOUISE MILLIGAN: The UN decision also requires that Victoria Police reopen its disciplinary proceedings against the officers. The State of Victoria has 180 days to respond.

DYSON HORE-LACY: We expect the Japanese to comply with a decision of the International Court of Justice on whaling. Be very hypocritical for the state to say, "Oh, no, we're not going to abide by this decision because we don't like it."

LOUISE MILLIGAN: Corinna Horvath is glad to finally have vindication.

CORINNA HORVATH: It's bigger than me now. It's not about me. It's about everybody else who ends up in my position. If their [the state’s] police officers act as bad as what they do, they need to be responsible for them.

SARAH FERGUSON: Louise Milligan reporting. Victoria Police declined to comment on Corinna Horvath's case and Victorian Government said in a statement that it's currently reviewing the UN committee's finding.
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