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http://www.humanrightseurope.org/2013/03/court-serbia-must-give-credible-answers-about-what-happened-to-babies-missing-from-hospitals/
March 26, 2013 - European Convention of Human Rights 
 
Court: Serbia must give credible answers about what happened to babies missing from hospitals


A human rights judgement today may help hundreds of parents to find out what happened to their newborn babies who went missing from hospital wards in Serbia.

The disappearances occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s and are revealed today in the European Court of Human Rights judgement in the case of Zorica Jovanović v. Serbia (application
 no. 21794/08).

Judges held,unanimously, that there had been a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights. As Just satisfaction (Article 41), the court held that Serbia was to pay Ms Jovanović 10,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage. It also awarded EUR 1,800 for her lawyers’ costs and expenses.

The case concerned the alleged death of Ms Jovanović’s healthy newborn son in 1983 in a State-run hospital. She was never allowed to see his body and suspects that her son may even still be alive, having unlawfully been given up for adoption.

The court found that, although the procedure in hospitals when newborns die had been improved and reports had been drawn up by Parliament to investigate the missing babies cases, ultimately nothing had been done to remedy the ordeal suffered by the parents, including the applicant, in the past. 

Therefore the Court concluded that Ms Jovanović had suffered a continuing violation of the right to respect for her family life due to Serbia’s continuing failure to provide her with credible information as to what has happened to her son.

Given the significant number of other potential applicants, the Court also held under Article 46 (binding force and implementation) that Serbia had to take measures to give credible answers about what has happened to each missing child and to provide parents with adequate compensation.

Principal facts

The applicant, Zorica Jovanović, is a Serbian national who was born in 1953 and lives in Batočina (Serbia).

On 28 October 1983 Ms Jovanović gave birth to a healthy baby boy in the Ćuprija Medical Centre, a State-run hospital. Three days later, when she and the baby were about to be released, she was informed that her son had died. She tried to access the hospital nursery where her son had spent the night, but was restrained by two orderlies.

A nurse tried to inject her with a sedative, which she managed to avoid. In a state of shock and with no other options left open to her, she checked out of the hospital. The baby’s body has never been handed over to Ms Jovanović or her family. She has never been provided with an autopsy report or informed as to when and where he was allegedly buried. The hospital simply informed her that her son had died on 31 October 1983 and that there was no indication as to the cause of death.

In November 2002 the local municipality informed Ms Jovanović that her son’s birth but not death had been registered in the municipal records. This was again confirmed in September 2007.

A criminal complaint filed by Ms Jovanović’s husband against the hospital staff – following reports in the media about other similar cases – was rejected in October 2003 as unsubstantiated. No further reasoning was given and it was not clear if a preliminary investigation had been carried out or not.

Between 2003 and 2010 certain official steps were taken to improve procedures in hospitals following the death of newborns and to investigate allegations in 2005 by hundreds of parents whose newborn babies had gone missing following their supposed deaths in hospital wards, mostly from the 1970s to the 1990s. 

Thus, since 2003 parents, family or legal representatives of newborns who have died in hospital have been obliged to sign a special form stating that they have been informed of the death and will personally make funeral arrangements. Furthermore, three reports have been drawn up by the Ombudsman, the Serbian Parliament’s investigating committee and a working group set up by Parliament to assess the situation and propose legislative changes. 

The Ombudsman’s and investigation committee’s reports found serious shortcomings in the applicable legislation in the 1980s as well as in the procedures and statutory regulations as to what should happen when a newborn died in hospital (the prevailing medical opinion being that parents should be spared the pain of having to bury their newborns) and that parents’ doubts as to what had really happened to their children were therefore justified. 

The reports also found that the State’s response to the situation had in itself been inadequate. In December 2010 the working group concluded that no changes to the existing, by that time already amended legislation, were necessary, except as regards the collection and usage of medical data. The group also noted that Article 34 of the Constitution made it impossible to extend the applicable prescription period for prosecution of crimes committed in the past, or to introduce new, more serious, criminal offences and/or harsher penalties.

Ms Jovanović has repeatedly been treated for depression from 2009 to 2011.

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