Study title

When individuals are mistreated by European governments, the European Court of Human Rights is responsible for reviewing state actions under the European Convention of Human Rights. If the individuals are successful in proving a violation, the ECtHR may award them damages for the treatment suffered. The dataset contains the non-pecuniary damage amounts for each victim of human rights violations in three types of cases that the ECtHR has decided from 2003 to 2016: cases of torture, inhuman and degrading treatment (article 3), cases of arbitrary detention (Article 5) and cases of violations of the right to life (article 2). The dataset contains details of what happened in each case (which violations the Court recognised), as well as characteristics of each of the victims (gender, age etc). All three files together, contain information about 3169 victims of human rights violations, along with the details of the legal qualifications of state conduct against these victims.When individuals are mistreated by European governments, the European Court of Human Rights is responsible for reviewing state actions under the European Convention of Human Rights. If the individuals are successful in proving a violation, the ECtHR may award them damages for the treatment suffered. Whilst domestic courts of the 47 Council of Europe (COE) Member States, over which the Court has jurisdiction, usually award damages on the basis of scales that are public, this is not the case with the ECtHR. The Court sets out no rules or guidelines as to when individuals are likely to get compensation; it also does not explain which elements of their treatment applicants should emphasise nor how much they should ask for. There is no information about maximum or minimum amounts awarded to individuals for specific violations nor about how claims in one case might compare to those in other cases. Often, individuals turning to the Court ask for millions of euros in damages, but only receive a few...