Podcast | When humans become migrants

Episode eight: The inconsistent success of migrant human rights cases in the 1990s

In this episode I discuss how the growing success of some migrants at the European Court of Human Rights saw the emergence of a case law “lottery” in the 1990s. [podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/03/hrm8_the_inconsistent_success_of_migrant_human_rights_cases_in_the_1990s-1cmz8or.mp3[/podcast] We consider the case of Berrehab about a Moroccan man who was married to a Dutch woman and who lived in the Netherlands. When…

Episode seven: Strasbourg wakes up to the predicament of migrants

In this episode I discuss the moment when migrants began to be able to make successful applications to the European Court of Human Rights. [podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/02/hrm7_1983_strasbourg_wakes_up_to_the_predicament_of_migrants-o9l3eg.mp3[/podcast] After the Court system was set up in 1959, there were many applications from migrants, but they were either ruled inadmissible or ended on friendly settlements. The Court did not…

Episode six: The different approach of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

In this episode, we turn to another system of human rights protection and see that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights has made pronouncements which are intended to give rights to migrants. [podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/02/hrm6_the_inter-american_court_on_nationality-1oi78iu.mp3[/podcast] I examine what happened more than thirty years ago, when Costa Rica was facing an influx of refugees from war-thorn neighbouring Nicaragua….

Episode five: The Strasbourg reversal, or why legal technique matters

In this episode I identify an interpretative practice of the European Court of Human Rights that I call the “Strasbourg reversal”. [podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/02/hrm5_the_strasbourg_reversal-20e6ctl.mp3[/podcast] The previous episode introduced the Adulaziz, Cabales and Balkandali v United Kingdom case of 1985. Basically, the ruling established that migrants have no automatic right to be reunited with close family members. This…

Episode four: Family reunion is not a right

In this episode I discuss the first migrant case to have come before the European Court of Human Rights. [podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/02/hrm4_family_reunion_is_not_a_right-2anbset.mp3[/podcast] Adulaziz, Cabales and Balkandali v United Kingdom (1985) considered the case of three “immigration widows” who were legally settled in the UK and wanted their husbands to join them. The women’s claim that their right…

Episode three: When Asians were expelled from East Africa

In this episode, I explain how the European Convention on Human Rights was not meant to reach colonial subjects. [podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/01/hrm3_when_asians_were_expelled_from_east_africa-2abpyha.mp3[/podcast] I use the example of the East African Asians case. After Uganda and Kenya became independent, the governments of these countries started to make the life of the Asians who lived there increasingly difficult. Many Asians had…

Episode two: What did the Convention say?

In this episode, I go back to the early history of human rights law in Europe in order to understand the foundations of the Strasbourg migrant case law. [podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/01/hrm2_what_did_the_convention_say-1wn9z2f.mp3[/podcast] The European Convention on Human Rights was created in 1950 in the aftermath of the horrors of World War II. It was a remarkable development in the…

Episode one: Do migrants have human rights too?

In this first episode in a series of podcasts about migrants’ human rights, Professor Marie-Bénédicte Dembour discusses whether the European Court of Human rights is striking the right balance when it comes to protecting the human rights of migrants. [podcast]https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/humanrights/files/2015/01/hrm1_do_migrants_have_human_rights_too-1nsyeg7.mp3[/podcast] While some politicians and sections of the media give the impression that migrants have too…