b)
The FIDH affirmed that the State had violated the right to personal integrity
protected in Article 5 of the Convention because “the sentences and the trials held
against its clients” affected their personal integrity. It indicated that “[t]he pursuit, arrest
and imprisonment” and, in the case of some of them, life in hiding, caused them
“suffering and harm to their physical and moral integrity.” These effects on their
integrity were based, among other factors, on “physical and psychological health
problems” resulting from their “arrest during vast police raids,” their identification by the
press, the political authorities and the Public Prosecution Service as dangerous
terrorists,” the “detention conditions,” the distance of the prisons from their families and
communities, and the financial difficulties of their families to be able to visit them, as
well as the direct consequences of the deprivation of liberty on them and on the family
dynamics and, in some cases, the “hunger strikes” carried out to “demand their release
and the non-application of the Counter-terrorism Act.” The FIDH did not allege the
violation of the right to the protection of the family.
369. The State did not submit specific arguments to contest these alleged violations. It
merely indicated, in general, that it “rejected […] each and every one of the human rights
violations attributed to it.”
B)
Considerations of the Court
1.
370.
Right to freedom of thought and expression
Article 13 of the Convention establishes the following:
Article 13
Freedom of thought and expression
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right includes freedom to seek,
receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in
print, in the form of art, or through any other medium of one's choice.
2.
The exercise of the right provided for in the foregoing paragraph shall not be subject to prior
censorship but shall be subject to subsequent imposition of liability, which shall be expressly established
by law to the extent necessary to ensure:
a)
respect for the rights or reputations of others; or
b)
the protection of national security, public order, or public health or morals.
3.
The right of expression may not be restricted by indirect methods or means, such as the abuse of
government or private controls over newsprint, radio broadcasting frequencies, or equipment used in the
dissemination of information, or by any other means tending to impede the communication and
circulation of ideas and opinions.
4.
Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 2 above, public entertainments may be subject by law
to prior censorship for the sole purpose of regulating access to them for the moral protection of
childhood and adolescence.
5.
Any propaganda for war and any advocacy of national, racial, or religious hatred that constitute
incitements to lawless violence or to any other similar action against any person or group of persons on
any grounds including those of race, color, religion, language, or national origin shall be considered as
offenses punishable by law.
371. In its case law, the Court has referred to the broad content of the right to freedom of
thought and expression established in Article 13 of the Convention. This norm protects the right
to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds.361 The Court has indicated that
freedom of expression has an individual dimension and a social dimension, based on which it
361
Cf. Advisory Opinion OC-5/85 of November 13, 1985, para. 30; Case of Kimel v. Argentina, para. 53, and Case of
Mémoli v. Argentina. Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs. Judgment of August 22, 2013. Series C No. 265,
para. 119.
126
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