On 11 October 2018, the UNHCR, the Council of Europe and the State Migration Service of Azerbaijan, organized a joint round table on the “Protection of Asylum-Seekers and Refugees against Expulsion and Refoulement – Judicial Review in Asylum related Cases” in Baku, Azerbaijan. The event brought together 26 representatives from Azerbaijani institutions, including representatives from the State Migration Service, the State Security Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Supreme Court, the Appeal Court, the Baku Administrative-Economy Court No. 1, the Grave Crimes Court, and the Academy of Justice and independent lawyers working on asylum cases. Mr. Vusal Huseynov, Head of the State Migration Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan underlined the importance of the topic selected for the workshop in light of the continuous problems that refugees and asylum-seekers face globally. He highlighted that the upcoming legislation changes will introduce complementary protection that will open new areas for cooperation with UNHCR and the Council of Europe. The objective of the Round Table was to discuss some of the key international standards developed in the field so far, both by the UN and the Council of Europe. The particular focus was on instruments and standards pertaining to expulsion and the prohibition of refoulement, as well as the prohibition of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and the critical procedural safeguards that international law and European human rights law provide in this context. Special emphasis was placed on the protection offered by Article 3 and Article 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and Article 4 of Protocol No. 4. Practices regarding interim measures – Rule 39 of the Rules of the Court – were also presented. The presentations were followed by a discussion on challenges and good practices of review of asylum cases in light of international and European instruments.
Newsletter - December 2018
NEWSLETTER SUMMARY
- Border protection and the rights of young refugees and children in focus
- Spain did not breach the Convention when returning migrants to Morocco at Melilla border
- PACE to discuss violence and discrimination against religious minorities
- New study on gender-based asylum claims and non-refoulement
- Launch of toolkit on academic integration of refugees into higher education
- Taking young refugees seriously: key messages from the conference
- North-South Prize 2019 honours the efforts to support the integration of migrants