Communicated on 28 November 2019

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 58282/19 H .P. and Others against Croatia lodged on 6 November 2019

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

Following his divorce from K.P., in 2016 the first applicant sought custody of their children, the second and third applicants. During the custody proceedings, expert reports established that the mother had been emotionally abusing the children by turning them against the first applicant and rendering their scheduled contacts difficult. The experts thus proposed that the custody be awarded to the first applicant, which the first-instance court accepted in its judgment of 30 April 2018. On appeal, on 4 September 2018 the second-instance court reversed that judgment concluding that K.P. had showed improvement in her behaviour and that younger children had in principle been more attached to their mother s than their father s . The children were ordered to continue living with their mother. The applicants ’ subsequent constitu tional complaint was dismissed.

Relying on Articles 3, 6, 8, 13 and 14 of the Convention, the applicants complain about the children ’ s exposure to emotional and physical abuse by their mother, a number of procedural shortcomings in the custody proceedings, violation of their family and private lives and discrimination of the first applicant in the custody proceedings on account of his sex.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Have the applicants been subjected to emotional and/or physical abuse in breach of Article 3 and/or Article 8 of the Convention? If so, h ave the authorities fulfilled their positive obligations under Article 3 and/or Article 8 of the Convention to protect the m from such treatment ?

2. Has there been a violation of the applicants ’ right to respect for their private and family life, contrary to Article 8 of the Convention? In particular, were the reasons adduced by the second-instance court in the custody proceedings relevant and sufficient in the circumstances? Was the decision-making process fair and such as to ensure due respect for the various interests safeguarded by Article 8, notably the best interests of the children?

3 . Has the first applicant been discriminated against in the custody proceedings on account of his sex, in breach of Article 14 taken in conjunction with Article 8 of the Convention ?

APPENDIX

No.

Applicant ’ s Name

Birth date

Nationality

Place of residence

1H . P .

10/08/1977

Croatian

Zagreb

2D . P .

08/09/2010

Croatian

Zagreb

3M . P .

30/01/2009

Croatian

Zagreb