Case Law of the European Court of Human Rights Related to Public International Law
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PIL (2020) Case Law Appendix II CASE LAW OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS RELATED TO PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW prepared by the Public International Law Division Directorate of Legal Advice and Public International Law (DLAPIL) Strasbourg, 31 December 2019 This document contains press releases and legal summaries of relevant cases of the European Court of Human Rights related to public international law. The full texts of the Court’s judgments are accessible on its website (http://www.hudoc.echr.coe.int). 1 CASE LAW OF THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS RELATED TO PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW Table of Contents (PRESS RELEASES) 1. ECtHR, Gjini v. Serbia, No. 1128/16, Chamber judgment of 15 January 2019 (Article 3, Prohibition of torture – Violation). The applicant, a Croatian national of Albanian origin incarcerated in Serbia, successfully claimed that he had been subjected to degrading treatment by his cellmates because of his origins and that the prison’s administration had failed to meet their duty to protect him and to investigate it when he complained. ................................................................................................................................. 9 2. ECtHR, Güzelyurtlu and Others v. Cyprus and Turkey, No. 36925/07, Grand Chamber judgment of 29 January 2019 (Article 2, Right to life – No violation by Cyprus, Violation by Turkey). The case concerned the investigation into the killings of three Cypriot nationals of Turkish Cypriot origin in the Cypriot-Government controlled area of Cyprus in 2005. The Court concluded that the Cypriot authorities had used all the means reasonably available to them to obtain the suspects’ surrender/extradition from Turkey. Turkey, on the other hand, had not made the minimum effort required in the circumstances of the case to comply with its obligation to cooperate with Cyprus for the purposes of an effective investigation into the murder of the applicants’ relatives. ................................................................................................ 12 3. ECtHR, Georgia v. Russia (I), No. 13255/07, Grand Chamber judgment of 31 January 2019 (Article 41, Just satisfaction – Violation). The Court found that the Article 41 of the Convention applied in the framework of an inter-State case and that Russia had to pay just satisfaction to Georgia after the 3 July 2014 judgment of the Court in which it had condemned Russia following the establishment in the Russian Federation of a coordinated policy of arresting, detaining and expelling Georgian nationals, amounting to an administrative practice. .................................................................................................... 17 4. ECtHR, Ndayegamiye-Mporamazina v. Switzerland, No. 16874/12, Chamber judgment of 5 February 2019 (Article 6, Right to a fair trial – No violation). The applicant, a Burundian national living in France, argued unsuccessfully that in her dispute with the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Burundi to the United Nations Office at Geneva about her dismissal, she had been deprived of her right of access to a court on account of the immunity from jurisdiction raised by the Republic of Burundi. The Court did not retain the application of the exceptions to immunity invoked by the applicant, considering that the restriction on the right of access to a court could not be considered disproportionate. .............................. 20 5. ECtHR, Narjis v. Italy, no. 57433/15, Chamber judgment of 14 February 2019 (Article 8, Right to respect for private and family life – No violation). The applicant, a Moroccan national living in Italy, argued unsuccessfully that the refusal to renew his residence permit and the resulting expulsion to Morocco motivated by his numerous criminal convictions, had violated his right to respect for his private and family life. ............................................................................................................................................................ 23 6. ECtHR, H.A. and Others v. Greece, No. 19951/16, Chamber judgment of 28 February 2019 (Article 3, Prohibition of torture – Violation regarding the detention in the police stations, No violation regarding the living conditions in the Diavata centre; Article 5-1-4, Right to liberty and security - Violation). The applicants, unaccompanied minors from Syria, Iraq and Morocco, successfully 2 argued that the detention conditions to which they had been subjected in different police stations amounted to degrading treatment. The Court found that the Government had failed to explain why the authorities first placed the applicants in a multitude of police stations and in degrading conditions of detention and not in temporary accommodation. Furthermore, as they did not have the official status of prisoner, the applicants were unable to take legal action and part in proceedings before the Administrative Court in order to lodge objections against detention. ....................................................................................................................... 26 7. ECtHR, Beghal v. the United Kingdom, No. 4755/16, Chamber judgment of 28 February 2019 (Article 8 of the Convention - Violation). The applicant, a French national who had been arrested on arrival at a British airport and questioned under a national anti-terrorist law, successfully complained that these procedures had violated her right to private life. ............................................................................... 30 8. ECtHR, Khan v. France, No. 12267/16, Chamber judgment of 28 February 2019 (Article 3, Prohibition of torture – Violation). The applicant, an unaccompanied migrant minor from Afghanistan, successfully argued that the French authorities had failed to take care of him before and after the dismantling of the migrant camp in Calais. .................................................................................................................... 33 9. ECtHR, Drėlingas v. Lithuania, No. 28859/16, Chamber judgment of 12 March 2019, Article 7 (No punishment without law – No violation). The applicant, a Lithuanian national and a former officer of the KGB who had been convicted for being an accessory to genocide in March 2015, unsuccessfully complained that the interpretation of the crime of genocide, as adopted by the Lithuanian courts, did not comply with public international law. The Court recognised that the statutory obligation on the domestic courts to take into account the Supreme Court’s case-law provided an important safeguard for the future, and that the applicant’s conviction for genocide could be regarded as foreseeable. .................................. 37 10. ECtHR, O.S.A. and Others v. Greece, No. 39065/16, Chamber judgment of 21 March 2019 (Article 5 § 2, Right to a speedy decision on the lawfulness detention – Violation; Article 3, Prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment – No violation). The applicants, four Afghan nationals, successfully argued that that they had been unable to obtain a judicial decision on the lawfulness of their detention at the Vial Centre in Greece. Indeed, the Court found that they had not had access to remedies by which they could have challenged the decisions which ordered their expulsion and the extension of their detention, neither received any information on the reasons of it. In addition, the Court found that there had been no violation of Article 3 during their detention period. ................................................................................... 40 11. ECtHR, Haghilo v. Cyprus, No. 47920/12, Chamber judgment of 26 March 2019 (Article 3, Prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment – Violation; Article 5 § 1, Right to liberty and security – Violation). The applicant, an Iranian national, successfully complained that the conditions under which he was detained for a long duration at three police stations in Cyprus constituted inhuman and degrading treatment according to Article 3. Moreover, the Court found that he did not have any effective remedy at his disposal. ................................................................................................................................ 43 12. ECtHR, Aboya Boa Jean v. Malta, No. 62676/16, Chamber judgment of 2 April 2019 (Article 5- 1-4, Right to liberty and security – No violation). The applicant, a national of Ivory Coast, had informed the Maltese authorities, upon his arrival on the territory, that he had obtained refugee status in Armenia and wanted to apply for asylum. He was then held in in immigration detention on the grounds that he could flee before his request was treated. The applicant unsuccessfully claimed that his detention had been illegal and arbitrary. ...................................................................................................................................................... 44 3 13. ECtHR, G.S. v. Bulgaria, No. 36538/17, Chamber judgment of 4 April 2019 (Article 3, Prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment – Violation if extradite to Iran). The applicant, a Georgian national, successfully complained that the Bulgarian authorities had not properly assessed the risk of ill-treatment to which he would be exposed if extradited to Iran, because the punishment which the applicant stood accused in Iran was also punishable with flogging. ........................................................... 45 14. ECtHR, Sarwari and Others v. Greece, No. 38089/12, Chamber judgment of 11 April 2019 (Article 3, Prohibition