Kurt t. Oostenrijk (EHRM, 62903/15) – Accounting for the particular context of domestic violence

Within a year, the European Court of Human Rights has delivered six judgments in cases where domestic violence has been the core issue: Kurt v. Austria (a Grand Chamber judgment); Tkhelidze v. Georgia; Tunikova and Others v. Russia; A and B v. Georgia, Y and Others v. Bulgaria, and Landi v. Italy. This case note focuses on the first five cases, which confirmed the need to adapt the Osman test to ‘the particular context of domestic violence’ as previously established in Opuz, Volodina, and Talpis. They aim to provide greater clarity with respect to key aspects of the test, specifically in relation to the relevance of the ‘context of domestic violence’ for the assessment of lethal risk, the impact of domestic violence on children, and the use of protection orders and pre-trial detention as part of the States’ ‘toolkit’ to prevent violence from happening. The judgments also suggest an improved understanding, on the part of the Court, of the interconnections that exist between gender-based discrimination and violence. That being said, insufficient recognition of the impact of additional grounds of discrimination on the experiences and manifestation of violence may hinder the effective application in the future of these recently established standards.