CEDAW/C/55/D/40/2012
violations of the Convention that are expected to be committed by another State
party outside both the Danish territory and Danish jurisdiction. The State party also
points out that the question of extraterritorial effect has not been directly addressed
in the Committee’s jurisprudence and that there are no indications that the relevant
provisions of the Convention would apply extraterritorially. 3
4.7 The State party further explains that the European Court of Human Rights has
clearly stressed, in its case law, the exceptional nature of extraterritorial protection
regarding the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights.
Already in Soering v. the United Kingdom (application No. 14038/88, judgement of
7 July 1989), the Court applied the principle of extraterritoriality to article 3 of the
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (Convention against Torture), which expressly prohibits States from
expelling, returning or extraditing a person to another State where there are
substantial grounds for believing that he/she would be in danger of being subjected
to torture.
4.8 Since then, the European Court of Human Rights has confirmed this
judgement on a number of occasions. In F. against the United Kingdom (application
No. 17341/03, decision of 22 June 2004), the applicant was an Iranian citizen who
had applied for asylum in the United Kingdom claiming persecution on account of
his homosexuality and arguing that it would be a violation of article 8 (right to
private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights if he was
removed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, because consensual homosexual activity
between adults was forbidden there. The Court observed that its case law had found
responsibility attaching to Contracting States in respect of expelling persons who
were at risk of treatment contrary to article 2 (right to life) and article 3 (prohibition
of torture) of the Convention. The Court went on to state as follows:
Such compelling considerations do not automatically apply under the other
provisions of the Convention. On a purely pragmatic basis, it cannot be
required that an expelling Contracting State only return an alien to a country
which is in full and effective enforcement of all the rights and freedoms set out
in the Convention.
__________________
3
13-42833
The State party observes that, in communication No. 10/2005, N.S.F. v. the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, decision of 30 May 2007, the applicant was a Pakistani
national who had applied for asylum in the United Kingdom along with her two children. She
claimed to fear for her life at the hands of her former husband in Pakistan and for her two sons’
future and education if the authorities of the United Kingdom deported her. She did not invoke
any specific provisions of the Convention nor demonstrate how the Convention might have been
violated. The communication was declared inadmissible on the grounds of failure to exhaust
domestic remedies. The Committee did not address the issue of extraterritoriality. The State
party also makes reference to communication No. 26/2010, Guadalupe Herrera Rivera v.
Canada, decision of 18 October 2011, where Canada argued that, in contrast to the Convention
against Torture and articles 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women does not deal
directly (or indirectly) with removal to torture or other serious threats to life and the security of
the person (see para. 4.4 of the decision). Canada further argued that the author could only bring
a communication concerning Canada related to alleged violations of the Convention committed
by and under the jurisdiction of Canada. Having found the communication inadmissible on the
grounds of failure to exhaust domestic remedies, the Committee expressly stated that it did not
consider it necessary to examine the other inadmissibility grounds invoked by the State party
(see para. 6.4. of the decision).
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