The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) published, on Monday 6 April, its first application referring to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Directed against the United Kingdom and referred to it on 24 March, the application concerns a man in his sixties suffering from asthma and diabetes who was arrested in London in 2017 and threatened with extradition to the United States, where he faces a life sentence. A threat which would constitute all the more a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment) since this extradition would take place in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and would confront the plaintiff with the conditions of detention he would face on arrival in US prisons.
At this stage, the Court has activated Article 39 of the Convention. Triggered in cases of "imminent risk of irreparable harm", it allows for the suspension of a deportation or extradition and for dialogue with the parties, in this case the British government.
Also on 6 April, Dunja Mijatovic, Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement calling for better protection of prisoners' rights at European level. "Held in a high-risk environment," "not adapted to face large-scale epidemics," and "with unsatisfactory health services," they face "higher rates of infectious and chronic diseases," she says. (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)