Judgment concerning Belgium
In the case of M.V. and Others v. Belgium, the Court held that there had been several violations of the Convention.
The case concerned four applicants for international protection who had not been provided with accommodation or material support for several months in Belgium. That was despite final decisions by the Brussels Employment Tribunal ordering the Belgian State to grant them such assistance in accordance with its legal obligations.
The conditions in which the applicants had had to live – on the street for several months with no means of providing for their essential needs, even during the winter – had exceeded a level of severity sufficient to engage Article 3. The applicants had thus been victims of degrading treatment that had entailed a lack of respect for their dignity.
The Court held that there had been a violation of the right to a fair hearing: while the Court was aware of the difficult situation the Belgian State had been facing, the time taken to enforce the court decisions concerning the applicants could not be regarded as reasonable.
The Court also held that the Belgian authorities had failed to fulfil their obligations concerning the right of individual application because the time taken between the indication of interim measures and their application by the authorities had not been reasonable. Those measures, moreover, had confirmed a final order that had previously been issued by the domestic courts.