When humans become migrants

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…