TrustHLT/LaCour huggingface dataset:
GR1 (Government): L'interdiction de la torture et des traitements cruels, inhumains et dégradants est intégrée dans plusieurs modules de la formation de base et de la formation continuée des policiers.
GR1 (Government): Par ailleurs, dans les arrêts Kakir et Poncelet, rendus à l'encontre de l'État belge pour des cas de violence, ces arrêts figurent aussi dans les formations pour des cas d'études de jurisprudence.
GR1 (Government): Donc, plus globalement, les policiers sont formés concernant le cadre normatif national, droit pénal, statut de la police, code de déontologie et international, notamment la jurisprudence de la Cour et les normes du comité prévention-torture, qui balisent leurs actions.
GR1 (Government): En matière pénale, on peut souligner que les articles 417-ter et 4-ter du code pénal se réfèrent explicitement à des actes perpétrés par un officier ou un fonctionnaire de police qui sont une circonstance aggravante, bien évidemment, des infractions, de torture ou traitement inhumain ou dégradant.
GR1 (Government): Quant au code de déontologie de la police, il est distribué à tous les policiers et il leur appelle leur obligation de respect et de protection des droits de l'homme.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): Good morning, I declare open the public hearing on the admissibility and merits in the case of Vavřička versus the Czech Republic and five other applications.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): The applications were lodged with the court between 23 July 2013 and 31 August 2015 under Article 34 of the convention by six Czech nationals, Mr. Pavel Avrička, Ms. Markéta Novodna,Mr. Pavel Ornič, Mr. Adam Brožič, Mr. Vrado Mirdubčí, and Mr. Prokop Roleček.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): The applications were allocated to the first section of the court pursuant to Rule 52, paragraph 1 of the rules of court.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): They were communicated to the government on 7 September 2015.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): On 17 December 2019, the chamber decided to relinquish jurisdiction in favor of the grand chamber.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): The governments of France, Germany, Poland, and Slovakia and the Association of Vaccine Injured Persons, the Association Rosalio, the European Center for Law and Justice, and the European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance were all granted leave under Article 36, paragraph 2 of the convention, and Rule 44, paragraph 3 of the rules of court to make written submissions to the court as third parties.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): The Rwandan government are represented by their agent, Mr. Vít Alexander Schorm,assisted by Ms. Eva Petrová, Kateřina Radová,Ms. Dana  Prudíková, Mr. Tomáš Suchomel, Mr. Roman Prymula,and Ms. Hana Cabrnochová, advisors.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): The applicants are represented by Ms. Zuzana Candigliota,counsel, assisted by Mr. Dan Petrucha, Mr. Karel Lach,Mr. David Dušánek, and Ms. Janíčková, advisors.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): Ms. Barbora  Rolečková, the mother of one of the applicants,is also present.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): Having consulted the agent of the government and the counsel for the applicants, I have determined the order of addresses as follows.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): Mr. Schorm and Mr. Prymula for the government will speak first, and then Ms. Candigliota for the applicants.
Robert Spano (JudgeP): I call Mr. Schorm.
GR2 (Government): Mr. President, distinguished judges, representatives of the applicants, once again it is a great honor for me to appear before the Grand Chamber and present my government's position.
GR2 (Government): The applicants in these cases complain about legislation on compulsory vaccination of children and its consequences for those who refuse to comply.
GR2 (Government): The compulsory vaccination scheme in the Czech Republic consists of vaccines against nine diseases to be administered to children according to a set calendar within their first years of life.
GR2 (Government): There is no direct enforcement of the obligation, but noncompliance may result in a fine and non-admission to nursery school.
GR2 (Government): Specifically, five applicants in their preschool age were not admitted to nursery school for failure to undergo or require vaccination.
GR2 (Government): And the sixth applicant, in fact, the first applicant, Mr. Wawrzycka,
GR2 (Government): was as a parent fined for refusing to have vaccinated his children aged 13 and 14 years.
GR2 (Government): The applicants invoke three convention rights.
GR2 (Government): They all allege an interference with their private and or family life under Article 8.
GR2 (Government): In addition, five of them also rely on the rights to education safeguarded by Article 2 of the first protocol.
GR2 (Government): And finally, three applicants contend having refused the prescribed vaccination on the grounds of their beliefs and convictions within the meaning of Article 9 of the convention.
GR2 (Government): Let me suggest at the outset, assessing the cases at hand exclusively under the scope of the right to respect their private life.
GR2 (Government): In previous cases, the court dealt with the issue of vaccination from this very angle.
GR2 (Government): Indeed, and as elaborated on in our written observations, the facts under scrutiny do not trace new issues under other provisions, but appear as restatements of the applicants' complaints under Article 8.
GR2 (Government): In addition, the court itself posed some questions regarding the applicants' conscience and non-admission to nursery school with reference to this provision.
GR2 (Government): This clearly warrants the conclusion that the applicants' claims fall, in fact, under the sole perspective of private life.
GR2 (Government): That being said, my government finds compulsory vaccination in principle compatible with the convention.
GR2 (Government): After all, with the exception of arbitrary interferences or manifest errors, it is not the task of an international court to dispute expert conclusions or domestic authorities.
GR2 (Government): Hence, I will mainly focus on showing that the Czech vaccination scheme, to the extent it may interfere with convention rights, is proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued, namely to protect not only the individual obliged to get vaccinated, but the health of the members of the society as a whole.
GR2 (Government): This concerns, in particular, vulnerable persons who cannot be vaccinated due to their state of health or those who have not developed antibodies against the disease in spite of previous vaccination.
GR2 (Government): In line with their positive obligations under the convention itself, states are bound to put in place effective public health policies, making it possible to combat serious and contagious diseases and to protect the life and physical integrity of those in their jurisdiction.
GR2 (Government): States can hardly expect that the court would discourage them from performing these vital tasks.
GR2 (Government): After all, the recent global health crisis has demonstrated that these considerations are more relevant than ever.
GR2 (Government): While vaccinations are voluntary in some countries and compulsory in others, the aim of the respective authorities in each country is the same.
GR2 (Government): Also, according to the World Health Organization, as well as the European Commission, vaccination is the most cost-effective and safe way to prevent diseases, and vaccination refusal belongs amongst the 10 listed threats to public health.
GR2 (Government): Let me note in this context that the court has never considered the compulsory vaccination itself to conflict with the rights protected by the convention.
GR2 (Government): There is one essential fact which I would like to put straight.
GR2 (Government): The applications were filed by parents on behalf of their children, with the exception of Mr. Wawrzycka.
GR2 (Government): Why does this matter?
GR2 (Government): The parents mostly point out the implications of their refusal of vaccination for themselves, for example, in terms of not being able to take a job due to non-admission of their children to nursery school.
GR2 (Government): Most of their claims seem, therefore, incompatible razione, persone, with the convention.
GR2 (Government): Moreover, the interests of the parents and their children may not necessarily be aligned.
GR2 (Government): Firstly, it is highly questionable whether not having the children vaccinated is in their best interest, especially when there is no substantiated reason for such a refusal.
GR2 (Government): As a matter of fact, under Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as developed by General Comment Number 15, issued by the competent UN treaty body, the child has the right to enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, including immunization against common childhood diseases.
GR2 (Government): Secondly, by refusing vaccination in the knowledge of the legal consequences, the parents de facto deprive their children from enjoying the company of their peers in nursery school.
GR2 (Government): Regarding the scope of the applicant's complaints, the period to be considered by the court started in 2003 and ended in 2015.
GR2 (Government): Inevitably, the vaccination policy has undergone some changes.
GR2 (Government): For example, an act on compensation for damage to health caused by compulsory vaccination has entered into force this year.
GR2 (Government): The court, however, has to examine the complaints raised in the initial applications and not subsequent events or events totally unrelated to the applicants.
GR2 (Government): The court should also be mindful that vaccination policy is a health policy that usually lies on the shoulders of experts.
GR2 (Government): In the light of the Green Chamber judgment in Ljubljana and Kosovo versus the Czech Republic, if the case requires from the national authorities an assessment of expert and scientific data, the state's margin of appreciation is broader.
GR2 (Government): To determine the scope of compulsory vaccination requires, indeed, a high degree of expertise.
GR2 (Government): That is why our written observations are supported by a number of opinions from the relevant expert societies in the Czech Republic.
GR2 (Government): In line with their opinion and also with the intervention of France, all the diseases for which the Czech legislation lays down compulsory vaccination are very serious and highly contagious.
GR2 (Government): Let me now bring our attention to issues of admissibility.
GR2 (Government): That is, after all, the reason for which the government speaks first.
GR2 (Government): There are a number of objections with regard to several applicants which my government raised in writing.
GR2 (Government): I will not linger on them.
GR2 (Government): Today, let me only comment on an argument newly mentioned in the applicants' written submissions to the Green Chamber concerning non-exhaustion of domestic remedies in the cases of applicants Brozik and Lupski.
GR2 (Government): Unlike the other applicants, these two filed neither a cassation nor a constitutional appeal in the proceedings concerning their admission to nursery school.
GR2 (Government): They contend that judicial proceedings would have offered reasonable prospects of success only had an interim measure been imposed.
GR2 (Government): The national courts responded to this argument that since there is no entitlement to preschool education, and indeed, many children do not attend nursery school simply because of lack of capacity of these kind of facilities, one cannot perceive a risk of serious harm to the applicant's subjective rights that could justify implementing an interim measure in their case.
GR2 (Government): An opposite outcome would, in fact, enable all unvaccinated children whose parents go to court to oppose the vaccination policy to enter preschool facilities for the duration of the proceedings.
GR2 (Government): That could jeopardize the legitimate aim of compulsory vaccination.
GR2 (Government): At the same time, the code of administrative justice makes it possible to ask, on serious grounds, the national court to give a priority to a case.
GR2 (Government): The government, therefore, maintain that the proceedings on the merits did represent an adequate and effective domestic remedy in these cases.
GR2 (Government): Turning now to the merits of cases examined by this court, as I have already said, I will take the applications mainly from the perspective of private life and devote only a couple of words to issues seemingly raised under the angles of the other rights.
GR2 (Government): The relevant legislation apparently affects the right to respect for family life only marginally, if at all.
GR2 (Government): The obligation to get vaccinated on pain of fine or of non-admission to a preschool facility may amount, generally speaking, to an interference with the right to respect for private life.
GR2 (Government): As to whether the interference was in accordance with the law, the impact of the parents' decision not to have their children vaccinated was not surprising.
GR2 (Government): The law was accessible and foreseeable.
GR2 (Government): The obligation to undergo a series of vaccinations is set out in the 2000 Act on Public Health Protection.
GR2 (Government): Its relevant provision specifies that details, including the extent of compulsory vaccination, shall be provided for in secondary legislation.
GR2 (Government): I cannot agree with the applicants that the Ministry of Health decree on vaccination against infectious diseases is not law in the sense of Article 8, paragraph 2 of the convention.
GR2 (Government): The notion of law is an autonomous concept, and the structure of the national legal order is not decisive.
GR2 (Government): The rules of obligatory vaccination are accessible to the general public and apply in the same way to the specified groups of persons.
GR2 (Government): Moreover, the relevant legislation has been repeatedly reviewed by the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Administrative Court in the proceedings initiated by the applicants themselves.
GR2 (Government): The domestic courts explicitly concluded that the legislation was in compliance with the Czech Constitution and the convention.
GR2 (Government): The Ministry of Health has established the scope of compulsory vaccination based on recommendations of its advisory boards of epidemiologists.
GR2 (Government): This board was superseded in 2010 by the National Immunization Committee, which is an advisory body composed of leading experts in the field of vaccinology and meets all the criteria set by the WHO for a functional national advisory committee on immunization.
GR2 (Government): I must oppose the applicant's argument that the compulsory vaccination scheme is not sufficiently supported by expertise.
GR2 (Government): Publicly available serological surveys have been performed in my country since 1960.
GR2 (Government): They are highly praised at the international level and meet the requirements of the European seroepidemiology network.
GR2 (Government): They monitor levels of antibodies against selected infections and provide information about susceptibility and collective immunity of the population.
GR2 (Government): The surveys are used to evaluate the overall effectiveness of vaccination programs and provide major grounds for important modifications in immunization schemes.
GR2 (Government): As an example, the surveys have led to a recent modification of the vaccination calendar with respect to the second dose of compulsory vaccination against measles, rubella, and mumps, which has been postponed.
GR2 (Government): Under these circumstances, the applicant's objections based on lawfulness are hardly defensible.
GR2 (Government): I will not dwell upon legitimacy and will turn to the essential question of proportionality.
GR2 (Government): There are nine important points that I will mention on the necessity of the compulsory vaccination in the Czech Republic in abstracto.
GR2 (Government): First, international commitments, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, place a positive obligation on the state to protect the health of people within its jurisdiction.
GR2 (Government): Vaccination is planned, organized, and controlled by experts of the public health sector.
GR2 (Government): Vaccines for compulsory vaccination are provided free of charge by the state.
GR2 (Government): The applicants allege that if all other children are fully vaccinated, there is practically no possibility for the applicants to potentially infect other children.
GR2 (Government): They further allege that the aim of protecting the health of other children could be achieved by a less intrusive way, subsequent exclusion of unvaccinated children from the collective in case of an actual threat or outbreak of a disease.
GR2 (Government): I cannot agree.
GR2 (Government): The legislation seeks to prevent spread of the respective diseases.
GR2 (Government): It is aimed at the minors, as they are especially vulnerable to the risk of infection, and in that regard can face serious consequences.
GR2 (Government): According to the Czech Vaccinology Society, newborns and infants are very susceptible to infections because their immune system is not fully mature.
GR2 (Government): They also suffer from higher frequency and complication rates of some infections.
GR2 (Government): That is why an early vaccination is necessary.
GR2 (Government): That is also why the condition of vaccination for entry applies to preschool facilities.
GR2 (Government): The idea behind is that all children are sufficiently protected when newcomers enter a collective people where the risk of infection is automatically higher.
GR2 (Government): It is also a tool to motivate parents to let children vaccinate in order for the society as a whole to achieve the necessary herd immunity.
GR2 (Government): We talk about herd immunity when most of the population is immune to an infectious disease, and this provides indirect protection to those who have not, in spite of previous vaccination or due to their health condition, acquired individual immunity.
GR2 (Government): The herd immunity is fragile, however.
GR2 (Government): The more parents refuse vaccination, the greater is the risk of disease spreading.
GR2 (Government): Nevertheless, the number of such parents has been on the rise, and the applicants' allegation that diseases are almost non-existent in my country is irrelevant in an era of increased migration.
GR2 (Government): What is more, the applicants are making benefits of solidarity of other people who bear the burden, the responsibility for the health of the society.
GR2 (Government): I may sound rough, but from this point of view, the applicants place themselves in a position of fair judges in the public health system.
GR2 (Government): Second, compulsory vaccination does not refer to a coercive administration of a vaccine, but rather to an obligation to be vaccinated against nine diseases according to a schedule determined by experts.
GR2 (Government): The enforcement scheme is very limited, and it usually follows a discussion between parents and pediatrician about the aim of compulsory vaccination and the consequences of its refusal.
GR2 (Government): The sanctions are not of a criminal, but of administrative nature only.
GR2 (Government): The authorities can impose a fine, just like in Mr. Babrzycka's case, which
GR2 (Government): can only be applied once and in the maximum amount of some 380 euros.
GR2 (Government): Another consequence consists in non-admission of the child to nursery school, just like in the case of the other applicants.
GR2 (Government): Third, with regard to the need for various types of vaccination, the respective legislation is subject to an ongoing review by the Ministry of Health and its National Immunization Committee.
GR2 (Government): The content of our obligatory immunization schedule has fully corresponded to the recommendations of the WHO.
GR2 (Government): No new compulsory vaccination has been introduced since the applications were filed.
GR2 (Government): The immunization scheme has not been rigid, though, as in 2010, vaccination against tuberculosis was dropped and started to apply only to selected groups at risk.
GR2 (Government): Fourth, obligatory vaccination is not performed mechanically.
GR2 (Government): It is preceded by a medical examination if a child is found immune to infection or health contraindication is discovered.
GR2 (Government): The vaccination is not carried out.
GR2 (Government): Hence, the interest of the society in terms of public health is fairly balanced against the protection of the rights of individuals.
GR2 (Government): The applicants cast doubt on the establishment of permanent contraindications.
GR2 (Government): According to the Czech Pediatric Society, such contraindications are rare, but nonetheless possible.
GR2 (Government): For example, in case of severe oncologic diseases, immune depressive conditions, and severe allergic reactions to previous vaccination.
GR2 (Government): Fifth, although the child must be vaccinated against all diseases and within the time limit set out in the respective legislation, parents have a choice between several vaccines available and dates of application.
GR2 (Government): However, the choice must not burden the child with repeated administration of vaccines if combined vaccines are available.
GR2 (Government): In practice, the antigenic combinations determined by the National Immunization Committee are deemed optimal.
GR2 (Government): Sixth, compulsory vaccination is the only way to achieve the protection of health as voluntary vaccination in the past did not lead to a necessary level of vaccination coverage of the population.
GR2 (Government): As the vaccine hesitancy has been growing, the applicants being, after all, a perfect example.
GR2 (Government): Other countries have been introducing compulsory vaccination too.
GR2 (Government): For instance, Germany, with regard to measles since the 1st of March, 2020.
GR2 (Government): Seventh, the adverse effects of pharmaceuticals, including vaccines, are constantly monitored.
GR2 (Government): Each health care professional has the obligation to report them.
GR2 (Government): And parents can do the same.
GR2 (Government): Eighth, imposition of a fine as a measure of last resort or decision on non-admission to nursery school must be reasoned and is subject to judicial review.
GR2 (Government): According to the established case law of this court, this in itself constitutes an important safeguard.
GR2 (Government): And finally, under the court's case law again, states enjoy a wide margin of appreciation in matters of health care policy.
GR2 (Government): All the more so as there is presently no agreement at the European level in respect of vaccination policy.
GR2 (Government): My country's policy, together with its consequences, is far from being unique within the Council of Europe member states, as also indicated by third party interventions of the various governments.
GR2 (Government): To sum up this section of my speech, the system of obligatory vaccination in the Czech Republic as such is accompanied by due safeguards within the meaning of the court's case law.
GR2 (Government): Let me now comment on the interference in Concreto.
GR2 (Government): Unlike the applicants, I'm convinced that even in relation to them individually, a fair balance under Article 8 of the Convention was struck.
GR2 (Government): I will make three points now.
GR2 (Government): First, none of the children was vaccinated against the parents' will.
GR2 (Government): The obligation of vaccination is not absolute.
GR2 (Government): There are exceptions based on immunization to infection or contraindication explicitly provided for in the domestic law.
GR2 (Government): There is yet another case of exemption on the grounds of freedom of conscience established by the Constitutional Court.
GR2 (Government): In the domestic proceedings, however, none of the applicants proved meeting conditions for exemption.
GR2 (Government): Applicant Wawrzycka suggests that the applicable rules were laid down retrospectively in his case.