16 posts tagged echr

We wrote about the important Grand Chamber decision in Saadi v Italy (on Article 3, non-refoulement, and diplomatic assurances) here. CCJHR member Fiona de Londras was invited to prepare an Insight on the case for the American Society of International Law.

The Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on his visit to Ireland was just published on 30 April. It includes responses from the Irish Government. Commissioner for Human Rights, Report by the Commissioner on his Visit to Ireland 26 - 30 November 2007 (CommDH(2008)9, Council of Europe, 2008)

The government has recently suffered a number of setbacks in asylum and immigration cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal. Two cases are summarised in Migrationwatch Briefing Paper 8.25: The Libyan case and the Abu Qatada case.

The High Court yesterday handed down judgment in a case involving a man who had donated sperm to a lesbian couple on foot of an agreement between them that, while he was to have ‘favoured uncle’ status, he was not to be involved in parenting in any way.

The rule of law and a robust judiciary A judiciary that is completely independent of government is an essential cornerstone of democracy. In the last week, and in the space of just three days, High Court judges in London and the Court of Appeal delivered three hammer blows to the British government

As predicted yesterday: We have grave misgivings, of course, about the European Convention on Human Rights. All too often it leads to putting the rights of terrorists ahead of those of the people of Britain. The Sun is of course right.

Today the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) released its judgment in AS & DD v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] EWCA Civ 289, which concerned the lawfulness of the deportation of the applicant to Libya, pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding with the proposed receiving state.

Article 3 of the ECHR, which prohibits torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, imposes positive obligations on states, including the obligation of non-refoulement (i.e. the obligation not to return and individual to a country where that individual is likely to be subjected to treatment that violates Article 3).

This week has been an interesting one. I have been at a trial which was scheduled to last 3 days. As is often the way, in the cold light of day, once it has actually got started, the three days look like they could slip away in the blink of an eye. Not, however, if you have a judge with an iron grip on the progress of the proceedings.

With half-hearted apologies for the dreadful pun. BBC Radio Four’s Law in Action podcast is a recent find (I used to listen to the radio version some time ago) - but it has been a good one so far. On Wednesday evening, I listened to a remarkable episode, being an interview (read a written summary