The applicant had sought asylum here, but her application was rejected. She was suffering advanced HIV/AIDS. With continued proper treatment she would survive several years. If returned to Uganda she would not receive that treatment and would not survice as long.
Held: The issue was not as to her mistreatment in Uganda, but as to the lack of treatment there. It was not a breach of her article rights to be returned. If she had been a special case, the humanitarian reasons for not ordering a return might be overwhelming, but her case was far from unique. The cases were not clear. The ECHR had itself sought to distinguish its own decision in D -v- UK. The fundamental was that article 3 did not require signatory states to admit and treat Aids sufferers from all over the world and to provide them with treatment for life. Nor should the humane treatment of an asylum applicant whilst his application is determined put him in a better position than someone who had not managed to reach these shores.
Baroness Hale said: ‘In my view, therefore, the test, in this sort of case, is whether the applicant’s illness has reached such a critical stage (i.e. he is dying) that it would be inhuman treatment to deprive him of the care which he is currently receiving and send him home to an early death unless there is care available there to enable him to meet that fate with dignity. This is to the same effect as the text prepared by my noble and learned friend, Lord Hope of Craighead. It sums up the facts in D. It is not met on the facts of this case.’
Judges:
Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Baroness Hale of Richmond, Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood
Citations:
[2005] UKHL 31, [2005] 2 AC 296, [2005] 2 WLR 1124, [2005] INLR 388, (2005) 84 BMLR 126, [2005] 4 All ER 1017, [2005] HRLR 22, [2005] Imm AR 353, [2005] UKHRR 862
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights 3
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – N v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 16-Oct-2003
The applicant had come to the UK to seek asylum, but had advanced HIV/AIDS. When her asylum claim failed she sought permission to continue her stay saying that if returned she would not receive proper treatment and would die. . .
Cited – D v United Kingdom ECHR 1997
In the circumstances of the case, where the applicant was in the advanced stage of a terminal illness (AIDS), to implement a decision by the respondent to remove the appellant to St Kitts in the West Indies would be a violation of his rights under . .
Cited – Stott (Procurator Fiscal, Dunfermline) and Another v Brown PC 5-Dec-2000
The system under which the registered keeper of a vehicle was obliged to identify herself as the driver, and such admission was to be used subsequently as evidence against her on a charge of driving with excess alcohol, was not a breach of her right . .
Cited – Bensaid v The United Kingdom ECHR 6-Feb-2001
The applicant was a schizophrenic and an illegal immigrant. He claimed that his removal to Algeria would deprive him of essential medical treatment and sever ties that he had developed in the UK that were important for his well-being. He claimed . .
Cited by:
Appealed to – N v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 16-Oct-2003
The applicant had come to the UK to seek asylum, but had advanced HIV/AIDS. When her asylum claim failed she sought permission to continue her stay saying that if returned she would not receive proper treatment and would die. . .
Applied – ZT v Secretary of State for the Home Department CA 24-Nov-2005
The applicant entered the UK as a visitor, but resisted her return home saying that she had HIV, and would not receive proper treatment for her condition if returned to Zimbabwe.
Held: the prohibition against inhuman and degrading treatment . .
Cited – Wilkinson v Kitzinger and others FD 31-Jul-2006
The parties had gone through a ceremony of marriage in Columbia, being both women. After the relationship failed, the claimant sought a declaration that the witholding of the recognition of same-sex marriages recoginised in a foreign jurisdiction . .
Cited – Eastaway v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry CA 10-May-2007
The applicant had been subject to company director disqualification proceedings. Eventually he gave an undertaking not to act as a company director, but then succeeded at the ECHR in a complaint of delay. He now sought release from his undertaking . .
Cited – Barclay and Others, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice and others CA 2-Dec-2008
The claimant appealed against refusal of his challenge to the new constitutional law for Sark, and sought a declaration of incompatibility under the 1998 Act. He said that by restricting the people who could stand for election, a free democracy had . .
Cited – McKinnon, Regina (On the Application of) v Secretary Of State for Home Affairs Admn 31-Jul-2009
Assurances for Extradition
Extradition of the defendant was sought to the US to face allegations of hacking into defence computers there. He said this would infringe his article 3 rights, saying that he suffered Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Held: The application failed. US . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights, Health
Updated: 14 June 2022; Ref: scu.224575