CEDAW/C/64/D/67/2014
resubmitted the appeal on 12 May 2010. On 21 June 2010, the Administrative Court
decided a minor issue (no deferral of payments for the proceedings), but then
sections 01 and 17 of the Court merely shuffled jurisdiction back and forth and did
not issue a final decision until 20 March 2013, when the Administrative Court
confirmed the decision of the Independent Administrative Panel, stating that it
raised no points of law. The author submits that the proceedings befor e the
Administrative Court were ineffective due to their excessive duration. In her case,
there was a period of inactivity of 2 years and 9 months (from 21 June 2010 to
20 March 2013), while the case was pending for three years (from 23 March 2010 to
20 March 2013).
2.10 The author maintained that the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court
denies the discriminatory character of the prostitution laws, the enforcement of
which resulted in the described events, and for this reason it had repeatedly
dismissed complaints about this legislation.
Complaint
3.1 The author submitted that she is a victim of discrimination against women, as
the State party’s prostitution laws discriminate against women and allow law
enforcement to focus on the sex life of women, whereas there are no effective
safeguards against abuse. This is evident in the present case: existing safeguards
against spying on sex life by means of unlawful undercover investigations were
ignored by the police and subsequent remedies were made ineffective by procedural
shortcomings. As a result of this deficiency in the legal system, the author suffered
from violence against women and human rights violations committed by the police
(violations of her private life and of private data protection, intrusions into her
private home and degrading treatment).
3.2 The author maintained that illegal prostitution is not a crime but an
administrative offence and therefore could not have justified an undercover
investigation, as, under section 54 of the Security Police Act, such investigations are
permitted only for the purpose of combating crimes, and, under section 35, the
minimum requirement for such an investigation is having a specific suspicion of
involvement in a serious crime. Nevertheless, the police continued the undercover
investigation for four weeks, without having defined in advance the point at which
the intrusion into her private life could no longer be justified by the information
gained. Under section 28a of the Security Police Act, such an investigation must be
a means of last resort, and, under section 29, intrusions into private life must be
minimized and kept proportional to the crime being investigated. The same applies
under the Code of Criminal Procedure, sections 131 and 133 of which require a
determination of the duration of an undercover investigation in advance — if the
investigation lasts for several weeks, the crime must be particu larly serious.
3.3 The author also maintained that she was subjected to degrading treatment by
means of forced nudity. She referred to the jurisprudence of the European Court of
Human Rights 4 and academic research stating that forced nudity is degrading
__________________
4
16-13831
Judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Tyrer v. United Kingdom (application
No. 5856/72) of 25 April 1978, in which forced nudity was an aggravating factor; and Human
Rights Committee, communication No. 240/1987, Collins v. Jamaica, views adopted on
1 November 1991.
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