Invitation / 26 September 2018: ECtHR hearing on Spain's push-backs at the EU external borders

The hearing will start at 9:15am. You are cordially invited to a press briefing after the hearing.
 
When:
26 September 2018 at 12:30pm

Where:
Hotel de l’Orangerie, 58 Allee de la Robertsau, Strasbourg, 67000

Who:
Wolfgang Kaleck, General Secretary of ECCHR
Gonzalo Boye, lawyer representing the complainants

Strasbourg/Berlin/Madrid, 17 September 2018 – A case that could set an important precedent: On 26 September 2018, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) will hear a key case on the unlawful push-backs at the Spanish-Moroccan border. In October 2017, the ECtHR had ruled that Spain’s practice of automatic expulsions violate the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The judgment came in response to complaints against Spain from N.D. and N.T. from Mali and the Ivory Coast, seeking to enforce their fundamental right to have rights. In August 2014, N.D. and N.T. were directly pushed back to Morocco after they had crossed the border fence structure at Melilla – without access to any legal procedures or protection. On the initiative and with the expertise of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), the two submitted individual complaints to the ECtHR in February 2015. They are represented by ECCHR partner lawyers Carsten Gericke (Hamburg) and Gonzalo Boye (Madrid).

In other ECtHR proceedings, ECCHR is supporting refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in their complaints against brutal push-backs near the Idomeni camp on the Macedonian-Greek border.

To counter injustice with legal interventions – this is the aim and daily work of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR is an independent, non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to enforcing civil and human rights worldwide. It was founded in 2007 by Wolfgang Kaleck and other international human rights lawyers to protect and enforce the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as other human rights declarations and national constitutions, through legal means.

Together with those affected and partners worldwide, ECCHR uses legal means to end impunity for those responsible for torture, war crimes, sexual and gender-based violence, corporate exploitation and fortressed borders.

Maria Bause
T: +49 30 69819797
M: presse@ecchr.eu

Philipp Jedamzik
T: +49 30 29680591
M: presse@ecchr.eu