UK and Rule 39: Deportations blocked by the European Court of Human Rights

"European Court of Human Rights blocks more deportations from UK than any other country"

The Daily Telegraph, 01 May 2012

The Daily Telegraph opened the month of May with the claim that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) "has thwarted more planned deportations by Britain than any other country". This particular claim centres upon 'Rule 39', and the remit of the Court to sit in judgement on appeals from individuals against deportation by member states.

Analysis

Rule 39 concerns Requests for Interim Measures and allows the European Court of Human Rights to issue interim measures in exceptional cases which are binding on the State concerned:

"The Court will only issue an interim measure against a Member State where, having reviewed all the relevant information, it considers that the applicant faces a real risk of serious, irreversible harm if the measure is not applied."

"The applicant must provide detailed justification substantiating their concern for the abuse of their rights should deportation go ahead."

The Telegraph accurately reports that between 2008 and 2011 a total of 911 Rule 39 decisions were handed down in favour of the applicant against the UK. To provide a comparison, the closest rivals to the UK in terms of total numbers of Rule 39 decisions going against the state were: Sweden 691; France 432; the Netherlands 276; Finland 251.

Of course, if one is looking at the total number of upheld Rule 39 applications, it is also worth presenting the number of rejected applications made against the UK: 2,809. Far above Sweden: 896, France: 534, and the Netherlands: 503.

So, while the European Court of Human Rights did block more deportations from the UK than any other country it also rejected more applications made under Rule 39.

When Full Fact broke down the ECtHR's data to see what percentage of total applications made against the UK under Rule 39 were upheld by the Court it turns out the UK is not actually ahead in the race. 

In only 20.5 per cent of applications over the last four years has the ECtHR blocked deportation from the UK, compared to the 43.5 per cent of the time they intervened in Sweden.  Of the major comparable countries, the UK in fact has the lowest percentage of deportations blocked by the ECtHR except for Germany who are on 0.7 per cent.

For a more precise picture, we can also look at the most recent percentage of Rule 39 applications upheld per country in 2011:

With the exception of 2008 the UK consistently did not have the highest percentage of deportations blocked by the ECtHR, and the percentage that have been blocked has actually been falling for the past three years.

Conclusion

The UK does have more findings made against it by the European Court of Human Rights than other countries, but it has a higher success rate in the cases brought before the Court under Rule 39.