Italy considers the sound of cleaning the "toilet" a new violation of human rights that deserves compensation
Italy's Supreme Court has added a new human rights violation to a list that includes "slavery, torture and forced starvation," which is the "sound of flushing the toilet with water at night," according to the Washington Post.
The Italian court relied on rulings by the European Court of Human Rights to end a 19-year legal battle that began when a couple living in an apartment near La Spezia complained that their neighbors' new toilet was keeping them awake with "unbearable noise", according to the newspaper. Il Giornale, based in Milan.
A lower court initially ruled against them, but the couple took the case to an appeals court in Genoa, which ordered an investigation to find out why the toilet was so loud.
The Times of London reported that the four brothers who owned the apartment had installed a water tank near the wall of the couple's bedroom.
The court was sympathetic to the couple's struggle to sleep.
The appeals judge said the sound of using water to flush the toilet was "aggravated by frequent nighttime use", had harmed their quality of life, and had violated the right to free exercise of daily habits established by the European Convention on Human Rights.
Because of this inconvenience, the brothers were ordered to move the water tank, and he paid the couple about $565 for each year since the tank was installed near the couple's bedroom, bringing the total to $10,760.
The brothers asked the Italian Supreme Court to intervene, and that court also ruled against them, and said that the European Court of Human Rights upholds "the right to respect for the private and family life of the individual," according to Il Giornale.
The court added that the sound of cleaning with water at night "contradicts the principle of comfort and violates the right to health", The Times of London reported.
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