European Court of Human Rights

SECOND SECTION

CASE OF K.F. AND OTHERS v. NORWAY

(Applications nos. 39769/17 and 5 others - see appended list)

JUDGMENT
 

STRASBOURG

12 September 2023

This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision.

In the case of K.F. and Others v. Norway,

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:

 Jovan Ilievski, President,
 Lorraine Schembri Orland,
 Diana Sârcu, judges,
and Dorothee von Arnim, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to:

the applications against the Kingdom of Norway lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ("the Convention") by the applicants listed in the appended table ("the applicants") on the various dates indicated therein;

the decisions not to disclose the applicants' names;

the decision to grant legal aid to the applicant in application no. 45985/19;

the decisions to give notice of the complaints concerning Article 8 of the Convention in all applications, of the complaint concerning Article 9 of the Convention in application no. 48372/18 and of the complaint concerning Article 6 of the Convention in application no. 38097/19 to the Norwegian Government ("the Government") represented by their Agent, Mr M. Emberland, of the Attorney General's Office (Civil Matters) and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application no. 45985/19;

the observations submitted by the Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants in respect of all applications except application no. 58880/19;

the interest expressed by the applicant in pursuing application no. 58880/19;

the comments submitted in respect of applications nos. 39769/17, 9167/18 and 48372/18 by the Government of the Czech Republic, the Government of the Slovak Republic and the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, who were granted leave to intervene by the President of the Section under Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3 of the Rules of Court;

the decision to reject the respondent Government's objections or reservations to the examination of the applications by a Committee;

Having deliberated in private on 11 July 2023,

Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASES

1.  The applications all concern complaints under Article 8 of the Convention relating to decisions to withdraw the applicant parents' parental responsibilities in respect of the children and to authorise their adoption, against the parents' wishes. The complete list of applicants and the relevant details of the applications are set out in the appended table.

THE COURT'S ASSESSMENT

1. JOINDER OF THE APPLICATIONS

2.  Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single judgment.

2. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 8 OF THE CONVENTION

3.  The applicant parents complained about decisions to withdraw their parental responsibilities in respect of their children. Responsibility had then been transferred to the authorities, which, by virtue of those responsibilities, authorised the adoption of the children against the parents' wishes. The applicant parents relied on Article 8 of the Convention. In application no. 48372/18 the applicants additionally maintained that the replacement of foster care with adoption had violated their rights under Article 9 of the Convention.

4.  The Government contested those complaints.

5.  The Court considers that the complaint under Article 9 of the applicants in application no. 48372/18 is an integral part of their complaints under Article 8, interpreted and applied in the light of Article 9 (see, for a similar approach, Abdi Ibrahim v. Norway [GC], no. 15379/16, §§ 141-42, 10 December 2021). Accordingly, it examines the applicants' complaints about the withdrawal of their parental responsibilities in respect of their children and the authorisation of their children's adoption from the standpoint of Article 8.

6.  The Court notes that the complaint under Article 8 in all applications is not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a) of the Convention or inadmissible on any other grounds. It must therefore be declared admissible.

7.  The Court finds it established that the measures decided in the proceedings complained of, namely the withdrawal of the applicant parents' parental responsibilities in respect of their children and the authorisation of the adoption of those children, entailed an interference with the applicants' right to respect for their family life as guaranteed by Article 8 of the Convention. That interference had a basis in national law, namely the 1992 Child Welfare Act, which applied at the relevant times. It pursued legitimate aims within the meaning of Article 8 § 2 of the Convention, that is to say, the protection of the "health" and "rights" of the children involved. It follows that the legal issue arising in all the applications is whether the impugned measures were "necessary in a democratic society", within the meaning of that provision.

8.  In that context, the Court recalls that the general principles relevant to the proportionality analysis in cases involving child welfare measures (including measures such as those at issue in the present cases) are well established in the Court's case-law and were extensively set out in Strand Lobben and Others v. Norway ([GC], no. 37283/13, §§ 202-13, 10 September 2019) to which reference is made. The Court has since reiterated and applied those principles in, inter alia, K.O. and V.M. v. Norway (no. 64808/16, §§ 59-60, 19 November 2019), A.S. v. Norway (no. 60371/15, §§ 59-61, 17 December 2019), Hernehult v. Norway (no. 14652/16, §§ 61-63, 10 March 2020), Pedersen and Others v. Norway (no. 39710/15, §§ 60-62, 10 March 2020), M.L. v. Norway (no. 64639/16, §§ 77-81, 22 December 2020), Abdi Ibrahim v. Norway ([GC] no. 15379/16, § 145, 10 December 2021), A.L. and Others v. Norway (no. 45889/18, §§ 43-44, 20 January 2022), E.M. and Others v. Norway (no. 53471/17, §§ 52 and 54, 20 January 2022) and Roengkasettakorn Eriksson v. Sweden (no. 21574/16, § 70, 19 May 2022).

9.  Since all the instant cases concern adoption without parental consent, and most concern adoptions as replacements for foster home arrangements, the Court particularly reiterates from the above-mentioned general principles that such measures - which result in the legal ties between the parents and the children being definitively severed - should only be applied in "exceptional circumstances" and could only be justified if they were motivated by an overriding requirement pertaining to the child's best interests. It is incumbent on the Court to carry out a "stricter scrutiny" of whether the circumstances in the instant cases were so exceptional that such measures were justified (see Strand Lobben and Others, cited above, §§ 207-09).

10.  The Court also emphasises that, in light of the fact that the proceedings at issue concerning parental responsibilities and adoption were preceded by proceedings concerning care orders and contact rights, it follows from its relevant case-law that the Court must to some degree have regard to such previous proceedings in order to put the proceedings complained of in context (ibid., § 148). On several occasions the Court has taken into account whether decisions to replace foster home arrangements with adoptions were taken in situations where, following a placement in care, only very limited parent-child contact had been allowed (ibid., § 221; see also, for example, Pedersen and Others, cited above, §§ 67-69; M.L. v. Norway, cited above, § 92; and Abdi Ibrahim, cited above, § 152). Furthermore, the Court's case-law on such issues may be read in conjunction with its case-law relating to complaints about limitations on parent-child contact imposed during foster care arrangements (see, for example, K.O. and V.M. v. Norway, cited above, §§ 67-71, and A.L. and Others v. Norway, cited above, §§ 47-51).

11.  The Court further recalls that its task is not to substitute itself for the domestic authorities in the exercise of their responsibilities for the regulation of the care of children and the rights of their natural parents, but rather to review under the Convention the decisions taken by those authorities in the exercise of their power of appreciation (see, for example, Strand Lobben and Others, cited above, § 210).

12.  It goes without saying that there will always be differences between cases such as the instant ones with regard to the facts that were relevant to the authorities' decision-making processes in the domestic proceedings. As concerns the measures complained of, the Court, having examined all the material submitted to it in the instant cases, has, however, found no facts or arguments capable of persuading it to reach a different conclusion on the necessity in a democratic society of the interferences with the applicants' right to respect for their family life than those reached in Strand Lobben and Others, Pedersen and Others, M.L. v. Norway and Abdi Ibrahim (all cited above).

13.  In particular, the proceedings through which the adoption of the applicants' children was ultimately authorised and the reasons advanced for the measures decided in those proceedings reflected the fact that (i) insufficient importance was attached to the aim that placement in care be temporary and an affected family be reunited, and (ii) insufficient regard was paid to the positive duty to take measures to preserve family bonds to the extent reasonably feasible (compare also Strand Lobben and Others, cited above, § 220; Pedersen and Others, cited above, § 71; and M.L. v. Norway, cited above, § 99). It follows that the Court is not persuaded that the procedures to which the instant applications relate were accompanied by safeguards proportionate to the gravity of the interferences and the seriousness of the interests that were at stake (see, for a similar approach, Strand Lobben and Others, cited above, § 225).

14.  Accordingly, the Court finds that that there has been a violation of Article 8 of the Convention on account of the withdrawal of the applicant parents' parental responsibilities in respect of the children in question and the authorisation of the adoption of the children against the parents' wishes.

3. REMAINING COMPLAINT

15.  The applicant in application no. 38097/19 additionally complained of a violation of Article 6 of the Convention on grounds that one of the judges (an expert lay judge) who had participated in the impugned proceedings in 2018 regarding the removal of parental responsibilities and adoption had been biased, as that judge had also sat on the bench of the same court (City Court) in 2015 when that court had reviewed the care order made in respect of the applicant's son.

16.  The Court has examined the applicant's arguments in view of its relevant, well-established case-law on the requirement of an independent and impartial tribunal (see, for example, Denisov v. Ukraine [GC], no. 76639/11, §§ 60-65, 25 September 2018). Having scrutinised the judgments in question, thereby observing, inter alia, the limited analogy of the issues that were examined on the two occasions in 2015 and 2018 (see, for example, mutatis mutandis, Morel v. France, no. 34130/96, § 45, ECHR 2000-VI), the Court does not find that the case discloses any indication that the decision to be made in 2018 by the judge in question was prejudged by the court's decision in 2015 or any other legitimate ground to doubt the court's impartiality. This part of application no. 38097/19 is thus manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 (a) and 4.

APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 41 OF THE CONVENTION

1. Damage

17.  The Court notes that the applicants in applications nos. 38097/19 and 58880/19 did not submit any claims in respect of damage. Accordingly, the Court considers that there is no call to award them any sum on that account.

18.  It observes that the applicants in the remaining applications have all submitted claims in respect of non-pecuniary damage. The Court considers that the applicant parents must have experienced anguish and distress on account of the violation found. The Court accordingly awards them 25,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage, plus any tax that may be chargeable. Where both parents have applied to the Court (applications nos. 39769/17, 9167/18 and 48372/18), the award of that sum is made jointly (see the appended table).

19.  In respect of the applicant child in application no. 9167/18, the Court considers that, in view of his age at the time and the fact that he did not experience the procedures in question in the same way as his parents, the finding of a violation can be regarded as sufficient just satisfaction (see, for a similar approach, Strand Lobben and Others, cited above, § 230, and A.L. and Others v. Norway, cited above, § 62).

2. Costs and expenses

20.  The applicants in applications nos. 39769/17, 48372/18, 38097/19 and 58880/19 did not submit any claims in respect of costs and expenses. Consequently, the Court does not make an award in respect of these applicants.

21.  The applicants in applications nos. 9167/18 and 45985/19 claimed EUR 30,378.30 and EUR 15,000 respectively for costs and expenses.

22.  According to the Court's case-law, an applicant is entitled to the reimbursement of costs and expenses only in so far as it has been shown that these were actually and necessarily incurred and are reasonable as to quantum. A representative's fees are incurred if the applicant has paid them or is liable to pay them (see Merabishvili v. Georgia [GC], no. 72508/13, §§ 370-71, 28 November 2017).

23.  With regard to application no. 9167/18, the Court observes that the applicants were granted legal aid in the proceedings before the domestic courts and it does not find that they have demonstrated that they incurred any necessary and reasonable costs in addition to those already covered by the national legal aid scheme. As concerns any incurred costs and expenses in connection with their application before the Court, the Court finds that the claim has neither been sufficiently itemised nor supported by relevant documents. It accordingly finds no basis on which to award any sum in respect of costs and expenses.

24.  In respect of application no. 45985/19, the applicant did not submit any documents showing that she paid or was under a legal obligation to pay fees charged by her representative. In the absence of such documents, the Court finds no basis on which to accept that she has incurred the costs and expenses claimed (see, similarly, for example, Merabishvili cited above, §§ 371-72) and therefore does not make an award in respect of this applicant either.

FOR THESE REASONS, THE COURT, UNANIMOUSLY,

1. Decides to join the applications;
2. Declares the complaints under Article 8 of the Convention admissible and the remainder of application no. 38097/19 inadmissible;
3. Holds that the applications disclose a violation of Article 8 of the Convention;
4. Holds

(a)  that, in respect of applications nos. 39769/17, 9167/18, 48372/18 and 45985/19, the respondent State is to pay to the applicant parents, within three months, the amount indicated in the appended table (jointly to the parent applicants where so indicated), plus any tax that may be chargeable in respect of non-pecuniary damage, to be converted into the currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable at the date of settlement;

(b)  that from the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amount at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points;

5. Dismisses the remainder of the applicants' claims for just satisfaction.

Done in English, and notified in writing on 12 September 2023, pursuant to Rule 77 §§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.

 Dorothee von Arnim Jovan Ilievski
 Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

List of cases: