European Court of Human Rights archivos

The EU opens up to Bosnia’s accession

The EU has decided to implement the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) negotiated in 2005 and signed in 2009 with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The decision was taken at the meeting of the EU foreign ministers on 16 March 2015, following an earlier joint initiative by the foreign ministers of Germany and the UK. The SAA is intended to unblock BiH’s path towards EU membership, sidelining the earlier condition of implementation by BiH of the European Court of Human Right’s “Sejdic-Finci” ruling.

Poland’s complicity in CIA torture programme confirmed

The European Court of Human Rights has confirmed that the Polish government was complicit in the CIA’s secretive programme of rendition, detention and interrogation. The Court in Strasbourg rejected a challenge from the Polish government to a landmark ruling from last July, a decision which now makes that original judgement final. July’s judgment said that two current Guantánamo inmates, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, were held in a CIA prison in Poland, that they had been subject to torture, and that Poland failed in its duty under European human rights law to protect them or investigate what happened.

New Belgian database of “foreign fighters”

Returning from a visit to the United States, where he took part in the White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, the Belgian Security and Home Affairs Minister, Jan Jambon, announced this week the creation of a new database on jihadists. The database will include information on the 380 persons known to have connections with terrorists groups affiliated with ISIS. A delicate balance needs to be struck between law enforcement and respect for human rights.