P., C. AND S. v. THE UNITED KINGDOM - 56547/00

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:

The case originated in an application (no. 56547/00) against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by three United States and/or United Kingdom nationals, Mrs P., Mr C. and Ms S. (“the applicants”), on 23 December 1999 and 25 December 2000 respectively.

The applicants, who had been granted legal aid, were represented by Mr R. Stein, a solicitor practising in London. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr H. Llewellyn of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London. The President of the Chamber acceded to the applicants' request not to have their names disclosed (Rule 47 § 3 of the Rules of Court).

The applicants alleged that the measures taken by the authorities in removing S. at birth from her parents, placing her in care and freeing her for adoption breached Article 8 of the Convention and that the procedures followed were in breach of Article 6 of the Convention. They also relied on Article 12 of the Convention.

The application was allocated to the Third Section of the Court (Rule 52 § 1). Within that Section, the Chamber that would consider the case (Article 27 § 1 of the Convention) was constituted as provided in Rule 26 § 1.