Case Law

28 January 2022 | Judicial Body: UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) | Legal Instrument: 1984 Convention against Torture (CAT) | Topic(s): Convention against Torture (CAT) - Deportation / Forcible return - Eritreans - Exhaustion of domestic remedies - Torture | Countries: Eritrea - Switzerland

In it’s judgement E 2372/2021 issued 7 October 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled that due to “UNHCR International Protection Considerations with Regard to People Fleeing the Republic of Iraq” from May 2019, Sunni Arab men and boys of fighting age, who lived in an area under ISIS control and/or where ISIS maintains a presence and women and children associated with real or perceived ISIS members on account of their family or tribal relations meet a specific risk profile as they are under general suspicion of supporting ISIS. Therefore, people fulfilling these characteristics are likely in need of international refugee protection, depending on the individual circumstances of the case. Referring to the UNHCR International Protection Considerations as well as the “EASO Country Guidance: Iraq” from January 2021 the Constitutional Court ruled that the Federal Administrative Court must duly take into consideration the individual situation of the complainant against the backdrop of the specific risk profile in case the complainant has put forward fear of persecution because of the affiliation to the risk profile in a substantiated way. In the present case the Federal Administrative Court assumed that the alleged threat by Shiite militias was due to the battles between ISIS, militias and Iraqi units at that time and has not been directed against the complainant or his family directly. It denied an individual persecution without considering that the complainant – a Sunni Arab of fighting age, who lived in an area under ISIS control – was meeting a specific risk profile. The Federal Administrative Court’s findings were thus found to be arbitrary by the Constitutional Court.

27 January 2022 | Judicial Body: Austria: Constitutional Court of Austria (Verfassungsgerichtshof) | Topic(s): Armed forces / Military - Asylum-seekers - International armed conflict - Social group persecution | Countries: Austria - Iraq

Having regard to the information submitted by the parties, the Court finds that at first all the applicants were detained with a view to being removed, and their detention was presumably carried out initially in good faith and in compliance with Article 5 § 1 (f) of the Convention. However, the length of the applicants’ detention, as summarised in the relevant part of the Appendix, was from fourteen to sixteen months and the Government submitted no information about any actions taken in pursuit of the applicants’ administrative removal during these periods. Accordingly, in the Court’s view, the length of the applicants’ detention was not demonstrably related to the purpose pursued. 51. Furthermore, as regards the applicants’ complaint under Article 5 § 4 of the Convention concerning the lack of an effective procedure for review of detention, the Court notes that nothing in the available materials indicates that the applicants’ continued detention had been periodically reviewed or that they had indeed access to any procedure for such review. 52. Accordingly, the Court concludes that there has been a violation of Article 5 § 1 (f) and Article 5 § 4 of the Convention.

7 December 2021 | Judicial Body: Council of Europe: European Court of Human Rights | Topic(s): Deportation / Forcible return - Eritreans - Immigration Detention | Countries: Eritrea - Russian Federation