Judgment concerning France
In the case of L. and Others v. France the Court held that there had been several violations of the Convention.
In each of the three applications, the applicants complained that French law and practice did not provide effective protection against rape and that their status as minors and the vulnerable situations in which they had been at the time of the events complained of had not adequately been taken into account. The applications mainly concerned the respondent State’s compliance with its duty (“positive obligations”) under Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention, in their substantive and procedural aspects.
The Court considered that the investigating authorities and the domestic courts had failed to protect the applicants, who had complained of acts of rape and had been aged only 13, 14 and 16 at the relevant dates, in an adequate manner. It also considered that the domestic courts had not properly assessed the impact of all the circumstances surrounding the events; nor had they taken sufficient account, in evaluating whether the applicants had been capable of understanding and of giving consent, of the particularly vulnerable situations in which they had found themselves, particularly in view of their ages.