The main determination in this case is whether harm amounts to persecution for one of the five reasons set out in the Refugee Convention. The Court considered country background of El-Salvador to assess and determine if the appellant has a well-founded fear/risk of persecution for reasons relating to membership of a particular social group and different political opinion.
The Swiss authorities' decision to return a Zimbabwean national to his country of origin violated Article 3 of the Convention against Torture. The right to an effective remedy contained in Article 3 requires an opportunity for an effective, independent and impartial review of the decision to expel or return when there is a plausible allegation that issues under Article 3 arise.
1. This decision considers whether the appellant should be excluded from the protection of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (‘the Convention’) because there are serious reasons for considering that he committed crimes against humanity (Article 1F(a)) or in the alternative a serious non-political crime (Article 1F(b)) during his service in the Police d’Intervention Rapide (PIR) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
