PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE POWER ‑ FORDE

Following the Court ’ s judgment in Cobzaru v. Romania, the procedural aspect of Article 14 imposes upon Contracting Parties the obligation to investigate ex officio whether racist motives played a part in an act or practice held to be in violation of anot her article of the Convention. That obligation cannot be considered as being limited only to matters that fall within the ambit of Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention.

The applicants, being travellers or settled travellers, are a recognised vulnerable minority. Having regard to the nature and circumstances of this case, I would have preferred the Court to have examined, as a separate issue, their complaints under Article 14 when taken in conjunction with Article 8 of the Convention.

Where unacceptable treatment of a v ulnerable minority is known to S tate authorities, by way of significant individual complaints corroborated by reports of numerous independent monitoring bodies, I consider that a heightened vigilance is required of such authorities to investigate whether discrimination, direct or indirect, plays any part in the problem in issue. It may or may not be the case. To my mind, a greater readiness on the part of the Court to scrutinise, thoroughly, complaints of discrimination in such circumstances would encourage national authorities to pay greater attention to the procedural aspects of Article 14. Such procedural obligations are of critical importance in the challenge to eliminate discrimination.