Case Law

The Court found in particular that the Hungarian authorities had failed in their duty under Article 3 to assess the risks of the applicants not having proper access to asylum proceedings in Serbia or being subjected to chain-refoulement, which could have seen them being sent to Greece, where conditions in refugee camps had already been found to be in violation of Article 3. In a development of its case-law, it held that Article 5 was not applicable to the applicants’ case as there had been no de facto deprivation of liberty in the transit zone. Among other things, the Court found that the applicants had entered the transit zone of their own initiative and it had been possible in practice for them to return to Serbia, where they had not faced any danger to their life or health. Their fears of a lack of access to Serbia’s asylum system or of refoulement to Greece, as expressed under Article 3, had not been enough to make their stay in the transit zone involuntary.

21 November 2019 | Judicial Body: Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights | Topic(s): Expulsion - Freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment - Rejection at border - Right to liberty and security - Safe third country - Transit | Countries: Bangladesh - Greece - Hungary - North Macedonia - Serbia - Türkiye

“(….) even where national security is at stake, the concepts of lawfulness and the rule of law in a democratic society require that deportation measures affecting fundamental human rights be subject to some form of adversarial proceedings before an independent authority or a court competent to effectively scrutinise the reasons for them and review the relevant evidence, if need be with appropriate procedural limitations on the use of classified information.

17 May 2018 | Judicial Body: Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights | Legal Instrument: 1950 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) | Topic(s): Expulsion - National security / Public order | Countries: North Macedonia - Serbia

16 July 2014 | Judicial Body: Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights | Topic(s): Economic, social and cultural rights - Effective remedy - Housing, land and property rights (HLP) - Property restitution | Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina - Croatia - North Macedonia - Serbia - Slovenia

16 January 2014 | Judicial Body: Belgium: Cour constitutionnelle | Topic(s): Effective remedy - Safe country of origin | Countries: Albania - Belgium - Bosnia and Herzegovina - India - Montenegro - North Macedonia - Serbia

10 December 2013 | Judicial Body: European Union: Court of Justice of the European Union | Topic(s): Regional instruments - Safe third country | Countries: Austria - Greece - Hungary - North Macedonia - Somalia

30 October 2012 | Judicial Body: Belgium: Conseil du Contentieux des Etrangers | Topic(s): Discrimination based on race, nationality, ethnicity - Minorities - Non-state agents of persecution - Racial / Ethnic persecution - Roma - State protection | Countries: Belgium - North Macedonia

Submission by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the case of Kuric and Others v. Slovenia

26 June 2012 | Judicial Body: Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights | Topic(s): Citizenship / Nationality law - Denial of nationality - Proof of nationality - Rights of non-citizens - Statelessness - Statelessness | Countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina - Croatia - North Macedonia - Serbia - Slovenia

22 March 2012 | Judicial Body: Australia: Refugee Review Tribunal | Topic(s): Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) - Persecution on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity - Social group persecution | Countries: Australia - North Macedonia

20 October 2011 | Judicial Body: Belgium: Conseil du Contentieux des Etrangers | Topic(s): 1951 Refugee Convention - EU Qualification Directive - Social group persecution - State protection | Countries: Belgium - North Macedonia

19 May 2010 | Judicial Body: International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) | Topic(s): Albanians - Armed groups / Militias / Paramilitary forces / Resistance movements - International courts and tribunals - International criminal law - International humanitarian law (IHL) / Geneva Conventions - War crimes | Countries: North Macedonia