CASES OF DE WILDE, OOMS AND VERSYP ("VAGRANCY") v. BELGIUM (ARTICLE 50)
Preliminary objection rejected (non-exhaustion of domestic remedies);Pecuniary damage - claim dismissed;Non-pecuniary damage - finding of violation sufficient
10. The Court is called upon to rule only on the question of the application of Article 50 (art. 50) in the present cases. Thus, as regards the facts the Court will confine itself here to giving a brief outline and for the rest it refers to paragraphs 15 to 43 of its judgment of 18 June 1971. 11. That judgment concerned the detention of De Wilde, Ooms and Versyp ordered by decisions of the magistrates at Charleroi, Namur and Brussels on 19 April 1966, 21 December 1965 and 4 November 1965 respectively under Sections 13 (in the cases of De Wilde and Versyp) and 16 (in the case of Ooms) of the Act of 27 November 1891 for the suppression of vagrancy and begging. De Wilde regained his freedom after a little less than seven months (three of which he spent serving a prison sentence), Ooms after one year and Versyp after one year, nine months and six days. 12. In the course of the proceedings before the Commission, the applicants each claimed 500 Belgian francs (BF) damages per day of detention. Their counsel, Me. Magnée, now relies on the judgment of 18 June 1971 to claim, on behalf of each of them, damages of 300 BF per day of "unlawful detention". With that object, Me. Magnée began by addressing to the Belgian Minister of Justice, on 22 and 30 June 1971, two letters of which the first related to Versyp and the second to Ooms. On 12 July, the Minister replied that the Government could only apply the law as it stood while waiting for the Bill on "social misfits" - which it had introduced even before the judgment of 18 June 1971 - to be passed. Considering this reply to amount to a refusal contrary to the principle of the supremacy of international treaty law over national law, Me. Magnée informed the Minister, on 14 July that he proposed to bring the matter before the "competent authorities" and to notify the Commission. Counsel for the applicants did in fact write first to the Committee of Ministers - 16 July - to inform them of the Minister of Justice’s refusal which implied, he alleged, a violation of the Court’s judgment; he later wrote, on 23 July, to the Commission referring to Articles 5 (5), 48 and 50 (art. 5-5, art. 48, art. 50) of the Convention and requested the Commission to bring before the Court the claim made by each of his three clients. On 2 August, he addressed to the Minister of Justice a letter concerning De Wilde which was worded in the same terms as the letters of 22 and 30 June. The Minister acknowledged its receipt on 12 August, noting that along with the other two it had been communicated by Me. Magnée to the Commission. 13. In its memorial of 27 October 1971, the Government pointed out to the Court that on 17 June 1971 it had tabled in Parliament a Bill on "social misfits" intended to replace the 1891 Act. The Government added that, desiring to comply with the judgment of 18 June 1971 without awaiting the passage of this Bill, it had voted by Parliament an Act of 6 August 1971 amending the 1891 Act and containing two sections. The first, which inserted a new section, numbered 16 bis, in the 1891 Act, provides that decisions taken under Sections 13 and 16 are henceforth made subject to the remedies available under the Code of Criminal Procedure, including appeal. Section 2 was a transitional provision: it specified that vagrants or beggars held in detention on the entry into force of the 1971 Act (4 September 1971) in execution of a decision taken under Section 13 or Section 16 of the 1891 Act, could exercise for a period of one month the remedy provided for at Section 16 bis.