Chapter 8 • International Legal Standards for the Protection of Persons Deprived of Their Liberty “The effect of this article is thus to require the provision of a domestic remedy allowing the competent national authority both to deal with the substance of the relevant Convention complaint and to grant appropriate relief, although Contracting States are afforded some discretion as to the manner in which they conform to their obligations under this provision.”15 Although “the scope of the obligation under article 13 varies depending on the nature of the applicant’s complaint under the Convention”, nevertheless, “the remedy required ... must be ‘effective’ in practice as well as in law, in particular in the sense that its exercise must not be unjustifiably hindered by acts or omissions of the authorities of the respondent State ...”.16 The European Court added in this case that “the nature of the right safeguarded under Article 3 of the Convention has implications for Article 13. Given the fundamental importance of the prohibition of torture and the especially vulnerable position of torture victims, ... Article 13 imposes, without prejudice to any other remedy available under the domestic system, an obligation on States to carry out a thorough and effective investigation of incidents of torture. Accordingly, where an individual has an arguable claim that he or she has been tortured by agents of the State, the notion of an ‘effective remedy’ entails, in addition to the payment of compensation where appropriate, a thorough and effective investigation capable of leading to the identification and punishment of those responsible and including effective access for the complainant to the investigatory procedure.”17 Lastly, although, unlike article 12 of the 1984 Convention against Torture, article 13 of the European Convention does not impose, expressis verbis, “a duty to proceed to a ‘prompt and impartial’ investigation whenever there is a reasonable ground to believe that an act of torture has been committed”, “such a requirement is implicit in the notion of an ‘effective remedy’ under article 13”.18 Consequently, in the Aydin case there had been a violation of article 13 since “no thorough and effective investigation was conducted into the applicant’s allegations and ... this failure undermined the effectiveness of any other remedies which may have existed given the centrality of the public prosecutor’s role to the system of remedies as a whole, including the pursuit of compensation”.19 ***** For a more detailed analysis of the legal duty of States to prevent, investigate, prosecute, punish and remedy human rights violations see Chapter 15 of this Manual. 15 Eur. Court HR, Aydin v. Turkey, judgment (Grand Chamber) of 25 September 1997, Reports 1997-VI, p. 1895, para. 103. 16 Ibid., loc. cit.; emphasis added. 17 Ibid., pp. 1895-1896, para. 103. 18 Ibid., para. 103 at p. 1896. 19 Ibid., p. 1898, para. 109. 322 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers