Urgency in Expulsion Cases Before the European Court of Human Rights and the UN-Committees: A Bird’s Eye View

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter focuses on the issue of urgency in expulsion cases. It analyses case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), as well as the UN Human Rights Committee (HRCtee), the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the UN Committee against Torture (CAT). The question is addressed how these bodies deal with evidentiary matters and how, within the time-constraints, they deal with the requirements of elaboration and reasoning. It is a bird’s eye view because a view from a very high place allows you to see a large area, and urgency in expulsion cases also encompasses a large number of judgments and views. Also—from a practitioner’s perspective—the choice of forum will be dealt with. This chapter—as well as the entire book—takes a thematic, rather than a system by system approach to urgency in human rights litigation. It deals with the overall theme of legitimacy and protective potential of the tool of interim measures in human rights cases. To discuss the above-mentioned topics, a case study on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) will give insight into all these different aspects of urgency, evidentiary matters, choice of forum and the protective potential of interim measures in expulsion cases.KeywordsAsylumchoice of forumEuropean Court of Human Rightsevidenceexpulsionfemale genital mutilationFGMinhuman and degrading treatmentinterim measuresnon-refoulementrights of the childUN-Committeestortureurgency