The supervised judgments last week (from 24-26 September) included a set of cases collectively known as 'the Garabayev group', named after the first judgment, Garabayev v Russia (no. 38411/02). The Committee issued an Interim Resolution criticising the failure of Russia to implement reforms required by the group of cases.
The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (the LIBE Committee) voted on Thursday 3 October in support of a Resolution on EU and Member State measures to tackle the Syrian refugee crisis caused by the conflict in Syria. The Resolution will be voted on by the full Parliament, following a debate with the Council and the Commission, during the plenary session from 7-10 October.
On 10th September 2013, Mr Justice McDermott ruled in case S.S.L. v Minister for Justice and Equality [2013] IEHC 421that the refusal of subsidiary protection and the consequent deportation order were unreasonable in light of country of origin information available to the decision-maker at the time.
The subject of this report is the set of fundamental rights challenges posed by EU solidarity measures designed to support countries most affected by irregular arrivals by sea, including EU funding schemes, relocation from Malta and Frontex operations.
The case concerns the alleged ill-treatment and abduction of the applicant's son in Chechnya in May 2011. According to the applicant, his son was beaten and abducted by armed men in uniform while he was at work, and since then he has received no reliable news about him. Two days before, his son had been detained by police officers who had pressured him to confess to the preparation of a terrorist act. The applicant alleged violations of Article 3 (prohibition of torture and ill treatment), Article 5 (right to liberty and security) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy).
The applicant is an Afghan national who had been left disabled by a rocket launch in Afghanistan in 2006. He arrived in the United Kingdom in 2010 and applied for asylum, but his application was unsuccessful. Before the European Court of Human Rights, he alleged that his removal to Afghanistan would breach Article 3 ECHR as it would expose him to a higher risk of violence owed to his disability. He would also face lack of support and general discrimination.
A joint informal body of members of the European Parliament and Council of Europe parliamentarians has welcomed the prospect of talks resuming on EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Last week the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe decided to pursue negotiations with the European Union with a view to finalising the legal instruments setting out the modalities of accession. The high-level political negotiations stalled in the Autumn of 2011 after the completion of most of the technical work on accession.
On 8 May, the European Commission released its 2012 report on the application of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The report examines the action taken by the EU in 2012 to implement the Charter's rights in EU legislation and to ensure that this is in compliance with the Charter. It also reports on the impact of the Charter on the external action of the EU and on the most relevant cases of the Court of Justice concerning the Charter.
In a case involving three homosexual men seeking refugee status in the Netherlands who come from countries where homosexual acts are criminal offences (Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Senegal) the national court raised three questions concerning the assessment of applications for refugee status under the provisions of Chapter III of Council Directive 2004/83/EC (‘the Directive’). First, do third country nationals who are homosexual form a particular social group within the meaning of Article 10(1)(d) of the Directive?
