Turan Cakir v. Belgium, No. 44256/06, ECtHR (Second Section), 10 March 2009

Prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment. Violent behavior by police officers driven by ethnic or racial biases. Prohibition of discrimination. Obligation to carry out effective investigations. Link between racist attitudes and acts of violence.

Art. 3 ECHR 
Art. 14 ECHR 

1. When investigating violent incidents such as acts of ill-treatment, State authorities have the additional duty to take all reasonable steps to unmask any racist motive and to establish whether or not ethnic hatred or prejudice may have played a role in the events at hand. Proving racial motivation will admittedly often be difficult in practice. For this reason, the respondent State’s obligation to investigate possible racist overtones to a violent act is an obligation to use best endeavours and not absolute. In other words, the authorities must do what is reasonable in the circumstances to collect and secure the evidence, explore all practical means of discovering the truth and deliver fully reasoned, impartial and objective decisions, without omitting suspicious facts that may be indicative of racially motivated violence (case in which the applicant, a Belgian citizen of Turkish origin, had reported that he had been subjected to ill-treatment by police officers either during his arrest and the next period of custody at the police station).
2. The authorities’ duty to investigate the existence of a possible link between racist attitudes and an act of violence is an aspect of their procedural obligations arising under Article 3 ECHR, but it may also be seen as implicit in their responsibilities under Article 14 of the Convention to secure the fundamental values enshrined in Article 3 ECHR without discrimination (case in which the prosecution, started following the criminal complaint lodged by the applicant reporting an episode of racist violence by the police officers, had been declared time-barred by the Indictment Division of the Court, due to the expiry of the limitation period).