Czech Republic - Supreme Administrative Court, 11 Mar 2004, H.T.M, N.H.T, N.T.T., 2 Azs 8/2004-55
| Country of Decision: | Czech Republic |
| Country of applicant: | Vietnam |
| Court name: | Supreme Administrative Court |
| Date of decision: | 11-03-2004 |
| Citation: | 2 Azs 8/2004-55 |
Keywords:
| Keywords |
|
Humanitarian considerations
Description
“Factors relevant to the consideration of a decision to grant humanitarian protection. Humanitarian protection is a concept that encompasses all activities aimed at obtaining full respect for the rights of the individual in accordance with the letter and spirit of human rights, refugee and international humanitarian law. Protection involves creating an environment conducive to respect for human beings, preventing and/or alleviating the immediate effects of a specific pattern of abuse, and restoring dignified conditions of life through reparation, restitution and rehabilitation.” The grant of permission tothird country nationals or stateless persons toremain in Member States for reasons not due to a need for international protection but on a discretionary basis on compassionate or humanitarian groundsis not currently harmonised at a European level. However per Art. 15 Dublin II Reg., even where it is not responsible under the criteria set out in the Regulatiosn, aMember Statemay bring together family members, as well as other dependent relatives, on humanitarian grounds based in particular on family or cultural considerations. |
Headnote:
The case concerned an application for asylum for humanitarian reasons under the provision of Art 14 of the Asylum Act. The Court held that integration and a long period of residence in the Czech Republic, including being born on the territory, are not as sufficient reasons to fulfil the conditions of humanitarian asylum.
Facts:
The applicants, a Vietnamese woman and her two children, applied for asylum in 2000 on humanitarian grounds (Art 14 of the Asylum Act). The applicants stated; that the entire family lived in the Czech Republic for a long period of time - both children were born there and their mother came to the Czech Republic in 1989. The children were settled in the Czech Republic, in particular linguistically and socially. The Ministry of Interior (MOI) denied their asylum request stating that the applicants only applied for asylum to legalise their stay in the Czech Republic and this was not a reason for granting political or humanitarian asylum.
The applicant appealed to the Regional Court, which agreed fully with the conclusions of the MOI. The applicant appealed to Supreme Administrative Court.
Decision & reasoning:
After examining the contested decision, the Court did not find the appeal reasonable. According to the Court:
“The rationale for humanitarian asylum can be seen from the fact that the deciding authority should have the possibility of granting asylum in situations where the refusal to grant asylum would be “inhumane”…. This allows the deciding authority to react, not only to situations that were foreseeable at the time of the adoption of the Asylum Act, such as the usual reasons for granting humanitarian asylum (for example to those severely affected or seriously ill, or those who come from the areas affected by a significant humanitarian disaster, either natural or caused by human factors) but also to the situations that were not predictable. In this respect the degree of freedom of the deciding authority is limited only to the prohibition of arbitrariness …”
Neither the Regional Court nor the SAC denied that the situation of the applicants was oppressive. However, the situation was not so oppressive that the refusal to grant humanitarian asylum could be considered as obviously arbitrary. The situation of the applicants could not be solved by the means of the Asylum Act but rather by the Aliens Act.
Outcome:
The appeal was dismissed.
Observations/comments:
Case available on the website of the Supreme Administrative Court - www.nssoud.cz
Cited Cases:
| Cited Cases |
| Czech Republic - 3 Azs 12/2003 (Supreme Administrative Court) |
Follower Cases:
| Follower Cases |
| Czech Republic - Supreme Administrative Court, 28 February 2007, T.A. v Ministry of Interior, 4 Azs 146/2006-100 |