In the UK High Court case of Medhanye, R v. Secretary of State for the Home Department, the importance of the principle of mutual confidence in EU law was underlined. The claimant was an Eritrean national who sought asylum in the UK having previously received asylum in Italy. The Secretary of State decided to remove him to Italy under the Dublin II convention. Under this convention EU member states are entitled to assume that conditions in the first EU state where an individual seeks asylum are such that returning them to that country will not breach their human rights. The claimant sought judicial review of the decision of the Secretary of State that his claim that removal would breach his rights was unfounded.
The court considered the CJEU case of NS v. Secretary of State for the Home Department which established that the assumption of compliance with international human rights obligations which EU member States are entitled to rely upon under the Dublin II regulation, can be rebutted by “regular and unanimous” reports from international NGOs recording systemic breaches resulting in inhuman and degrading treatment. The Court of Justice of the EU in the NS case however stated that not every infringement of fundamental rights was sufficient to preclude removal. The claimant argued that the NS case was distinguished from his own as that case didn’t rule out the possibility that in a case where the contemplated treatment by the receiving state didn’t reach the standard for inhuman and degrading treatment under Article 4 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the transferring State still had to assess whether the applicant’s right to dignity under Article 1 would be harmed.
The court held however that the principle that a member state must contemplate whether there would be a violation of Article 4 was limited solely to an assessment of that right and the principle of mutual respect between member states prevails over any potential assessment of other rights.
Click here to read the full judgment.
Click here to read a post at the UK Human Rights Blog.