Migration Law Clinic Third Party Intervener at ECtHR

The European Court of Human Rights has accepted requests of the Migration Law Clinic to join the proceedings as a third party intervener in two cases against Sweden. It concerns the case M.T. v Sweden (Appl. no. 22105/18) and the case S.S. v Sweden (Appl. no. 43654/18). The first case is about a Syrian unaccompanied minor, whose request for family reunification with his mother and brother was rejected. The rejection was based on a temporary Swedish law, which excluded persons granted subsidiary protection (as opposed to refugee status) from the right to family reunification. The applicant complained about a violation of Articles 8 and 14 ECHR. The intervention of the Migration Law Clinic will focus on the question whether the (temporary) exclusion of persons in need of subsidiary protection from the right to family reunification amounts to discrimination and thus a violation of Article 14 in conjunction with Article 8 ECHR. The case S.S. v Sweden concerns a young Afghan woman, who claims that her expulsion to Afghanistan would violate Articles 3 and 9 ECHR. The third party intervention of the Clinic will address the question which risk factors need to be taken into account in cases of young Afghan women and under which circumstances an expulsion would violate the right to freedom of religion guaranteed under Article 9 ECHR.