What is rule 39? UK government tells civil servants to ignore European court of human rights on Rwanda deportations

By Kanstantsin Dzehtsiarou, University of Liverpool

The UK government is once again navigating legal and political hurdles over its plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. The latest debate is over the emergency bill that legally declares Rwanda a safe place to send refugees (despite the supreme court ruling the opposite).

The government has now told civil servants that, if a minister tells them to, they must ignore rule 39 orders from the European court of human rights in Strasbourg.

The court enforces the European convention on human rights, to which the UK and 45 other European countries are party. Rule 39 allows the court to issue interim measures to stop any of these governments from taking action that could or would violate someone’s human rights.

When is rule 39 used?

The court uses rule 39 only in urgent, exceptional cases where the person at the heart of the case faces real and irreparable harm to their life and health. Usually, this is when facing extradition or deportation to a country where they may be tortured or killed. Rule 39 measures are sometimes called “pyjama injunctions” because of the late-night nature of some rulings.

The court has been using this power for many years, and states usually comply. The court has only issued a handful of rule 39 orders to the UK. In some years it hasn’t issued any. In 2021 and 2022 it issued five per year. For comparison, in 2022 the court used these measures against Greece 101 times, Poland 64 times and Russia 59 times.

These measures are temporary. They simply stay the execution of extradition or deportation orders so the court can review the case. This is what happened in June 2022 to stop the first planned deportation flight to Rwanda from taking off.

The court has also used an interim measure to secure Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s transfer to Germany for treatment after being poisoned by a nerve agent.

Read Full Story https://theconversation.com/what-is-rule-39-uk-government-tells-civil-servants-to-ignore-european-court-of-human-rights-on-rwanda-deportations-221636