In the case of S.P. and Others v. Russia the Court held that there had been a violation of the prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment in respect of all the applicants, and a violation of the right to an effective remedy taken in conjunction with Article 3 in respect of all the applicants, except three of them.

The case concerned the treatment of the applicants when serving sentences in penal institutions in various parts of Russia. Within an informal prisoner hierarchy, they had been categorised as “outcasts”.

The Court found that the existence of a hierarchy and the applicants’ placement at its lowest rung amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment. The Government had failed to address, deal with, or even acknowledge that situation and had thus failed to protect the applicants from the suffering they had had to endure.

• Press release
• Factsheet - Detention conditions and treatment of prisoners