The Next Frontier: Expanding Protection in Europe for Victims of Armed Conflict and Indiscriminate Violence

Abstract

This article examines the protection currently afforded in Europe to victims of armed conflict and indiscriminate violence in the context of article 15c of the EC Qualification Directive (QD) and article 3 of the ECHR. It analyses the recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the European Court of Human Rights, and five member states (the UK, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands) with a view to identifying current legislation and state practice within Europe. It builds on an article by Lambert and Farrell to show how article 15c, as interpreted by the CJEU in Elgafaji, provides scope for broadening protection. It also discusses the relationship between article 3 ECHR and article 15c QD and human dignity as a core value in international protection. Finally, it considers the recent case law of European courts (both regional and national) and argues that this shows practical reasoning about the range of threats facing people fleeing conflict and violence and an awareness of a wider range of problems than previously recognized in protection cases. Nonetheless, there continues to be uncertainty regarding the threshold of indiscriminate violence required to satisfy article 15c.