Investigative Standards and Human Rights after Kraulaidis v. Lithuania

Human rights can have a positive and a negative dimension. The negative dimension is meant to prevent States from causing harm, the positive dimension requires the State to take action in order to safeguard human rights. Human rights can be institutional in nature (e.g., the protection of the institution of marriage), participatory (like the right to vote) and they can be of a procedural nature. This text is concerned with the implementation of a very important human right, the prohibition of torture. In recent years, the European Court of Human Rights has recognized that the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment also does have a procedural dimension. In the case of Kraulaidis v. Lithuania, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the official investigation into a traffic accident, which left the applicant permanently disabled, was so insufficient as to amount to a violation of Article 3 ECHR.