The Commission considered claims by long standing residents of the Belgian Congo who suffered as a result of upheavals on independence. One claim was based upon exclusion, albeit of Belgian nationals, from participation in the elections held in Belgium (in particular in 1958). The balance related to actions in the Congo both before and after independence. The Commission described Article 63 (now 56) as a so-called ‘colonial’ clause, recognising that when the Convention was first brought into effect, some of the signatories had colonies, but that ‘in contemporary practice, [such clauses had] undergone a rapid and distinct change parallel with the change in the legal position of the territories concerned’. Thus Article 56 represents ‘an effort to facilitate, although without rendering it compulsory, the application of the more important international treaties to territories, the status of which is as varied as it is changeable but without assigning a final degree of importance to any one such status’.
Held: ‘Whereas the applicants point out, in the second place, that their own status as Belgian citizens was sufficient to make them eligible for protection under Articles 1 and 4 of the Convention; Whereas the Commission is however unable to accept this view; whereas, although under the said Articles, the Contracting States guarantee to every person coming under their jurisdiction, without distinction, the rights and freedoms defined in Section 1 of the Convention, nevertheless the said guarantee is valid only within the limits of time and space recognised by those States; whereas the specific object of Article 63 of the Convention and Article 4 of the Protocol was to lay down, for everyone, the territorial field of application of the two instruments but without conferring any special privileges on nationals of the Contracting States; whereas also such privileges, far from flowing from Article 14 of the Convention, would be directly contrary to its provisions’. However, the claim in relation to elections in Belgium was within the ambit of the Convention since it arose from matters affecting the applicants’ rights as Belgian nationals in Belgium. It was rejected for other reasons. This case does not in any way assist the claimants’ argument.
Citations:
(1961) 4 YB 260
Cited by:
Cited – Quark Fishing Ltd, Regina (on the Application Of) v Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs CA 29-Apr-2004
The claimant sought damages for having had its licence to catch Patagonian toothfish off South Georgia revoked, saying that it had infringed its property rights under the Convention.
Held: Though the Convention rights had been extended to . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs ex parte Quark Fishing Limited HL 13-Oct-2005
The applicant had previously received licences to fish for Patagonian Toothfish off South Georgia. The defendant had instructed the issuer of the licence in such a way that it was not renewed. It now had to establish that its article 1 rights had . .
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs ex parte Quark Fishing Limited HL 13-Oct-2005
The applicant had previously received licences to fish for Patagonian Toothfish off South Georgia. The defendant had instructed the issuer of the licence in such a way that it was not renewed. It now had to establish that its article 1 rights had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 16 May 2022; Ref: scu.197881