The End of the Road on Diplomatic Assurances: The Removal of Suspected Terrorists under International Law

Abstract

Diplomatic assurances are agreements reached between the State from which an individual is to be transferred and the receiving State that the individual to be transferred is not at risk of suffering certain human rights abuses. Such assurances are generally sought from States that are known for serious human rights violations. In The End of the Road on Diplomatic Assurances: The Removal of Suspected Terrorists under International Law, Evelyne Schmid explores the legal arguments that are invoked to support the use of diplomatic assurances and weighs them against empirical evidence of the consequences that arise when diplomatic assurances fail to protect the transferred individual, pointing Chahal v. the United Kingdom, Saadi v. Italy, Ben Khemais v. Italy and Toumi v. Italy as to illustrate how diplomatic assurances may not suffice in preventing mistreatment of the individual upon his or her transfer. Schmid stresses the need for a careful approach towards the use of diplomatic assurances and provides a framework for assessing their validity.

Keywords: terrorism, human rights, diplomatic assurances, expulsion, non-refoulement, deportation

JEL Classification: K33, H56