European Court of Human Rights president Síofra O’Leary has hit back at the UK Government’s vows to ignore any injunctions from the court against Rwanda deportation flights, sparking a row with Downing Street.
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00:00 generally and in relation to the court's existing case law.
00:04 There is a clear legal obligation under the Convention for states to comply with Rule 39 measures.
00:11 The legal basis for this is principally Article 34 of the Convention,
00:15 the effect of protection of the right to individual application,
00:20 to which one could add for the lawyers in the room or online, Articles 1, 19 and 32 of the Convention.
00:28 The Court issues interim measures, as I indicated in my speech,
00:32 in exceptional circumstances where there is a real and imminent risk of irreparable harm.
00:37 In the past, and you can consult our HUDOC database for examples of this,
00:41 where states have in the past failed to comply with Rule 39 indications,
00:46 the Grand Chamber or chambers or committees of three judges have found that the states have violated their obligations
00:53 under Article 34 of the Convention.
00:56 Just last year, there was a case of this nature against the Russian Federation,
01:00 where the Court found a violation of Article 34.
01:03 In relation to the UK, I should state that it has always complied with Rule 39 measures,
01:10 going all the way back to the old Commission in the 1950s and stays of execution.
01:15 In only one case, to my knowledge, a case called Al-Sadun, did the UK fail to comply
01:21 and a violation of Article 34 was found,
01:23 but the factual circumstances of that case were very particular.
01:27 It might also be interesting for your correspondents to know that the UK has also publicly declared the need
01:34 for other states to comply with Rule 39 indications.
01:38 The most recent example of this was in 2021,
01:41 when the UK urged the Russian Federation to comply with the Court's Rule 39 measure adopted
01:47 in relation to the release of Alexei Navalny.
01:51 Another point which I think is important is to emphasise that Rule 39 measures also benefit UK citizens.
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