The Regime of European Court of Human Rights in Migration and Terrorism
Fahad Alamer
Teaching Assistant
Kuwait International Law School
Abstract:
The paper will examine the European Court of Human Rights regime towards the issues of migration and terrorism. It will argue that the Strasbourg regime in migration is satisfactory contrary to the terrorism regime proven to be lacking to some extent. Article 1 provided significant protection towards migrant applicants in widening the extension of the ECtHR jurisdiction. In this regard, the Court have also demonstrated a substantial degree of protection for migrants by widening the scope of Article 3.
Although, human trafficking is not directly tackled in the ECHR, the ECtHR in its caselaw criminalised it according to Article 4. The application of the Article 8 ‘family life’ has resulted in a wider protection for immigrants. While in terrorism, the regime was displeasing as the two limbs of Article 15 failed to be shown as barriers that protect human rights.
Nevertheless, The ECtHR makes it difficult for states to satisfy the exceptions under Article 2(2) and merely allows interferences under strict conditions. Therefore, on this basis, the approach held by the ECtHR proved to be adequate in migration but displeasing in terrorism. The methodology of the paper is desk research. The importance of the paper is due to two main reasons: i) Europe is facing a crucial problem regarding significant number of refugees which may raise human rights violations within the ECtHR and ii) terrorism has become a controversial subject to discuss due to the tragic events of September 11, 2001.
The aim of the paper is to highlight the ECtHR caselaw regarding to migration and terrorism. The paper will be divided into two sections. The first section will discuss the migration issue by defining the term ‘migration’ and then examining the means of access to protection under European Convention of Human Rights Art.1, as well as under Articles 3, 4, 5 and 8. It will also consider migration’s impact on terrorism. The second section, terrorism, will first define the term ‘terrorism’ both internationally and nationally (the UK), followed by elaborating ECHR Articles 2 and 15 in the field of terrorism. The reason for selecting the UK to define terrorism is due to the controversy that surrounds the term.
Keywords: human rights, The European Court of Human Rights, The European Convention of Human Rights, criminal justice, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, refugee, international law.