Human Rights Committee, CCPR/C/128/D/3300/2019, 2020
- Category: Case Law
- Source: Other
- Subject: Sexual Orientation/Sexuality, Refugee/Asylum, Human Rights
- Place: Other
- Year: 2020
- File: G2012259
- URL: https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CCPR/C/128/D/3300/2019
Human Rights Committee, ‘Views adopted by the Committee under article 5 (4) of the Optional Protocol, concerning communication No. 3300/2019 (CCPR/C/128/D/3300/2019)’, 28 May 2020
Summary
ICCPR: No risk of ill-treatment due to author’s sexual orientation in the event of deportation to Nigeria
On 28 May 2020, the Human Rights Committee published its views (CCPR/C/128/D/3300/2019) on the forced return of the author to Nigeria and the risk of treatment contrary to Article 7 ICCPR due to the author’s sexual orientation.
The author, a Nigerian citizen, applied for asylum in Sweden in 2015, alleging a well-founded risk of persecution by Boko Haram, later rejected. In 2016, he submitted a second claim based on his sexual orientation. This was also dismissed due to the lack of credibility and coherence. In 2018, a second request of re-examination was submitted, attaching newspaper articles concerning his personal story and sexual orientation. The Migration Agency refused to reopen the case, considering that the new evidence could have not changed the previous assessment as, inter alia, the author had never proven his identity and the newspaper articles could not be linked to his person.
The Committee recalled that the risk established under article 7 of the Covenant must be one that is personal and that the threshold of this risk is high. It added that considerable weight should be given to the evaluation carried out by the State parties unless the assessment was found to be clearly arbitrary or amounted to a manifested error or denial of justice. In this sense, the Committee found that Swedish authorities assessed repeatedly the case and the author was not able to prove how refusing a second re-examination amounted to a denial of justice. For these reasons, the Committee concluded that the author’s return to Nigeria would not represent a violation of article 7 of the Covenant.
Thank you to Francesca Zalambani, Legal Assistant at ECRE, for assisting us with the summary.
[Source: ELENA Weekly Legal Update – 5 June 2020]