## Facts

- Anthony M. Tyrer, a 15-year-old resident of the Isle of Man, was convicted in 1972 of unlawful assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
- A juvenile court sentenced him to three strokes of the birch as judicial corporal punishment.
- The punishment was administered by police officers in private, with Tyrer partially undressed and bent over a table, in the presence of his father and a doctor.
- Tyrer complained that the sentence and its execution violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibiting torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment).
- After proceedings before the European Commission of Human Rights, the matter was referred to the European Court of Human Rights, which issued its merits judgment in 1978.

## Issues

1. Whether judicial corporal punishment (birching), as imposed and executed on a 15-year-old offender, constituted degrading treatment or punishment prohibited by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

## Decision

- The European Court of Human Rights held, by 6–1, that the birching constituted degrading punishment in violation of Article 3.
- The Court treated the Convention as a “living instrument” to be interpreted in light of present-day conditions and contemporary penal standards among member states.
- The Court emphasized that the punishment was a deliberate physical assault by state agents and carried an element of formalized humiliation and stigma.
- The Court concluded that the combination of physical pain, compelled exposure, and debasing posture was capable of arousing fear, anguish, and inferiority sufficient to meet the Article 3 threshold.
- A dissenting judge argued Article 3 did not necessarily prohibit corporal punishment in all circumstances and warned against extending the provision beyond its original understanding.

## Legal Principles

- “Degrading” punishment under Article 3 includes treatment that humiliates or debases a person, including by inducing feelings of fear, anguish, and inferiority.
- Whether punishment is degrading depends on its nature, manner of execution, and effects, including the presence of humiliation and stigma.
- The Convention is interpreted dynamically, taking account of contemporary standards and developments in member states’ penal policies, particularly where practices fall into increasing disuse.

## Conclusion

The Court ruled that judicial birching of a juvenile, as administered by the state in a humiliating manner and against modern European penal standards, amounted to degrading punishment prohibited by Article 3.


Tyrer v. United Kingdom, 26 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) 14 (1978)