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    EJIL:The Podcast! Episode 7: “Walking Back Human Rights in Europe?” ‬ In this episode of the podcast, Sarah Nouwen is in conversation with Laurence Helfer (Harry R. Chadwick, Sr. Professor of Law, Duke Law School) and Erik Voeten (Peter F. Krogh Professor of Geopolitics and Justice in World Affairs, Georgetown University) about their article “ Walking Back Human Rights in Europe? ” which was published in the ...

Dr Lourdes Peroni *, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Ghent University Human Rights Centre (ECHR aspects) and Professor Steve Peers (EU law aspects) In what is possibly one of the most important judgments of 2016,  Paposhvili v. Belgium , the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has memorably reshaped its case law on when Article 3 ECHR (which bans torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment) applies to the expulsion of seriously ill migrants. In a unanimous judgment, the Court leaves behind the restrictive application of the high Article 3 threshold set in  N. v. the United Kingdom  and pushes for a more rigorous assessment of the risk of ill-treatment in these cases. For us at the  Human Rights Centre  of Ghent University, it was a thrill to intervene as a third party in such an important case. In  our third party intervention  we submitted that  Paposhvili  offered a unique opportunity to depart from th...

Kotiy v. Ukraine - 28718/09 Judgment 5.3.2015 [Section V] See: [2015] ECHR 253 Article 8 Article 8-1 Respect for family life Respect for private life Detention and preventive measures outside the country where the applicant worked and lived with his family: violation Article 5 Article 5-1 Lawful arrest or detention Detention and preventive measures in the absence of reasonable suspicion of an offence: violation Facts - In April 2008 the Kyiv Police Department instituted criminal proceedings against the applicant in connection with financial fraud and listed him as a wanted person on the grounds that he did not live at his registered place of residence in Ukraine and his whereabouts were unknown. The applicant had in fact by then been working and living with his family in Germany for several years. In November 2008, while attending the migration service department in Kharkiv to renew his international travel passport, he was arrested and escorted to the distri...

by David Hart QC Opinion of CJEU, 18 December 2014 – read O pinion Well, here’s a thing. The EU top court in Luxembourg has decided that it is somehow against the EU treaties for it to defer in specific instances to the other European top dog, the ECtHR in Strasbourg. Accession of the EU to the ECHR has been a very slow-burn process, with the Commission starting things off in 1979 (sic). The breakthrough, or so it appeared at the time, was the entry into force of  Article 6 of the Lisbon Treaty of European Union , in December 2009. This (Art.6(2)) makes it a treaty obligation  that the EU “shall accede to the ECHR”. Nice and simple then? No, not exactly, when you look at the extremely complex    Draft Agreement on Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights , concluded in April 2013- my post here . This seeks to make the adjustments to both the EU and ECHR institutions enabling a non-state organisation such as th...

On the 4th of April the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that if it becomes clear that the Refugee Treaty and the ECHR would prevent those witnesses to be send back to the DRC The Netherlands is obliged to let them out of detention and let them enter The Netherlands. But that as long as there is no decision on their asylum request they can be held in detention by the ICC awaiting return to their Congolese jailcells. In the following article in Dutch (but Google Translate does wonders) Hemme Battje discusses the case and all the court rulings. This whole proceeding can have it's effects on the willingness of states to send their criminals as witnesses to The Hague and the ICC and can also leave the Netherlands with criminals they cannot deport. This is a link to that article by Hemme Battje: http://verblijfblog.nl/2014/05/08/getuige-bij-het-strafhof-of-asielzoeker-in-nederland/ --------------------------------------------------- Want to read more about the ICC? Click on the pictur...

Het gaat hier geslaagde beroepen op het EVRM. Er worden een aantal voorbeelden aangehaald waarbij er twee worden uitgelicht. De eerste is een Chinese mensensmokkelaar en slangenkop die na zijn gevangenisstraf lid wordt van een Christelijke geloofsgemeenschap en in een soort klooster is gaan wonen en in de zevenenhalf jaar sinds zijn vrijlating heeft hij nooit meer iets misdaan. Zijn recht op privéleven conrform artikel 8 EVRM wordt daarom door de rechter eerbiedigd. Is dat nou zo erg? In onze Westerse maatschappij die toch dooraderd is met waarden uit een Christelijk verleden is berouw van zonden en je leven beteren toch juist iets wat wordt geprezen. En als iemand dan geen gevaar meer oplevert voor de maatschappij maar uit dat kloosterleven worden gehaald en teruggestuurd naar China voor hem zijn leven zwaar negatief zou beïnvloeden dan lijkt mij die artikel 8 EVRM redenering toch geen schade aan Engeland berokkenen. De ander is een Somaliër die vanaf zijn prille kinderjaren in Enge...

Interessant zijn ook de Dissenting opinions van twee rechters die niet zoals de meerderheid vinden dat meneers verhaal ongeloofwaardig is (Noot: zo zie je hoe belangrijk geloofwaardigheid is. Probeer dat altijd zo uitgebreid mogelijk aannemelijk te maken). Hun verhaal is wellicht interessant in het geval u een zaak heeft waar de geloofwaardigheid van het asielrelaas niet ter discussie staat maar het de vraag is of er nog wel risico is bij terugkeer. DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGE POWER-FORDE JOINED BY JUDGE ZUPANČIČ This case raises an important question concerning the additional weight, if any, to be accorded to evidence of past torture in this Court ’ s assessment [1] of any future risk that an applicant will suffer treatment that is prohibited by Article 3 of the Convention. As a general principle, a respondent State ’ s responsibility may be engaged where substantial grounds have been shown for believing that the person concerned, if deported, faces a real risk to...

Britain is being urged to confront Russia over its human rights record today when it chairs a high-level conference on the future of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Campaigners want the Government to persuade Europe’s leaders to invoke new “exceptional” measures against Russia for failing to comply with almost 200 critical rulings from the ECHR. However, Britain risks igniting a diplomatic storm if it adopts an aggressive stance while international efforts to garner Moscow’s support for a Syrian peace plan hang in the balance. David Cameron and other senior Tory ministers have criticised the ECHR for meddling in Britain’s domestic affairs, suggesting that the court should concentrate on serious human rights abuses in countries like Russia. But the ECHR has found Russian security forces culpable of multiple abuses in at least 180 separate cases arising from unlawful killings, abductions, secret detention, torture, ill-treatment and destruction of property perpetrated ...

Op deze site http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/03/06/who-should-have-the-final-word-on-human-rights-dr-ed-bates/ is onderstaand artikel te vinden geschreven door dr Ed Bates. Ook in Nederland wordt hier over gediscussieerd. Who should have the final word on human rights? – Dr Ed Bates March 6, 2012 by 1 Crown Office Row This is the first in a series of posts analysing the UK’s draft “ Brighton Declaration ” on European Court of Human Rights reform. Much of the criticism directed toward the European Court of Human Rights over the last year or so, in this country at least, has been that it is too ready to overrule decisions made by the competent United Kingdom national authorities. It is said that British courts have already addressed the relevant human rights arguments under the Human Rights Act, so it is quite wrong that Strasbourg should now ‘overrule’ them. A recent high profile example, apparently, was Strasbourg’s finding of a violation of the Convention in ...

February 29, 2012 by 1 Crown Office Row The French translation of the draft of the so-called  ‘Brighton Declaration’  (the seaside city where state parties to the ECHR will meet in April to discuss reforms of the Court and the Convention) has been leaked after the UK government refused   to circulate the text  publicly .  read more here:  http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2012/02/29/draft-declaration-on-british-echr-reform-plans-leaked-antoine-buyse/ Het ziet er naar uit dat Engeland een aantal veranderingen wil en op steun van Nederland rekent: 1) Veranderingen in "margin of appreciation" 2) Kortere beroepstermijn 3) Geen beroep mogelijk in zaken die al op dezelfde gronden nationaal zijn uitgeprocedeerd 4) Meer rechters Zie ook:  http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2012/02/29/britten-willen-invloed-europees-hof-voor-de-rechten-van-de-mens-inperken/ en:  Leaked proposals set out Britain's tough line towards Strasbourg UK wants to sto...

'Human rights laws put lives at risk': Cameron tells Euro court it harms fight against terror Prime Minister tells Euro court it harms fight against terror Backlog of 160,000 cases - just 45,000 presented to court in its first 40 years By  JASON GROVES Last updated at 4:25 AM on 26th January 2012 Comments ( 119 ) Share European human rights laws undermine the fight against terrorism and put British lives at risk, David Cameron warned yesterday. He said a string of bizarre rulings on terror and immigration cases had ‘distorted’ the ‘discredited’ concept of human rights. In a thinly veiled reference to the decision by the European Court of Human Rights to block the deportation of hate preacher Abu Qatada last week, the Prime Minister accused it of tying the hands of governments trying to deal with terror suspects. David Cameron addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The Prime Minister rebuked the European Court of Human Rights for 'undermining its own reputat...