HASSAN v. THE UNITED KINGDOM JUDGMENT – SEPARATE OPINION
65
entailing distinct judicial approaches in the evaluation of individual rights.
As worded in the third-party submissions, filed in the present case by the
Human Rights Centre of the University of Essex, it is thus clear that the
“internal coherence of international humanitarian law [is] significantly
different from that of human rights law” (see paragraph 92 of the judgment).
Thus, in my view, the underlying differences in the system of protection
under the Convention, on the one hand, and international humanitarian law,
on the other, constitute a particularly persuasive ground for dismissing the
automatic assimilation of these distinct regimes of international law, at least
where the relevant provision of the Convention is not legally amenable to
such an approach.
I also note that the above-mentioned observations from the case of
Varnava and Others v. Turkey (cited above), which the majority refers to,
must be read in this light. The Grand Chamber in Varnava and Others thus
explicitly included the caveat, “in so far as possible”, when referring to the
need to interpret the Convention in the light of international humanitarian
law. Moreover, and no less importantly, Varnava and Others dealt with the
interpretation of Article 2 within the context of the States’ positive
obligations to protect life under that provision in a “zone of international
conflict” (§ 185). It is evident that the positive component of Article 2 is
flexible enough to take account of the relevant rules of international
humanitarian law so as to create a more robust and coherent regime of
protection under the Convention. For obvious reasons, the subject matter in
the present case under Article 5 § 1 is quite the opposite.
As regards the majority’s reference to the “co-existence of the safeguards
provided by international humanitarian law and by the Convention in time
of armed conflict”, it suffices to observe that the former does not contain the
safeguards manifested in the exhaustive and limited grounds of permissible
deprivation of liberty contained in Article 5 § 1. On the contrary, indefinite
and preventive internment in wartime flatly contradicts the very nature of
the grounds found in sub-paragraphs (a) to (f), a view expressed far better
than I can by Baroness Hale of Richmond in her above-cited speech in the
Al-Jedda case in the House of Lords.
VI.
18. Finally, as regards the third argument set out in the Court’s
judgment, the majority reasons that “even in situations of international
armed conflict, the safeguards under the Convention continue to apply,
albeit interpreted against the background of the provisions of international
humanitarian law” (see paragraph 104). Thus, the majority correctly rejects
the Government’s invitation to disapply Article 5 of the Convention.
However, the majority goes on to declare that “[by] reason of the
co-existence of the safeguards provided by international humanitarian law,
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