In the case of Vainik and Others v. Estonia the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to respect for private and family life as concerned three of the applicants.

The case concerned the total ban on smoking in prisons in Estonia from October 2017. The four applicants in the case, prisoners at the time, complained both about the ban itself and the withdrawal symptoms they had had.

The Court found that the notion of personal autonomy and the possibility to make choices about one’s own life and health was at the heart of this case. Indeed, in a context of already limited personal autonomy, the freedom for prisoners to decide – such as whether to smoke – was all the more precious for them. In deciding to bring in the ban there had, however, been no assessment at all of the impact on the personal autonomy of prisoners who smoked. Such a far-reaching and absolute ban had not been justified and exceeded Estonia’s considerable leeway to regulate smoking in prisons.

• Press release