On Saturday 3rd October 2020, Rights and Security International submitted a written intervention to the European Court of Human Rights regarding the case of HF and MF v France.
The Case
This case concerned jurisdiction and state responsibility for the repatriation of nationals from the Middle East following the fall of the Islamic State. The applicants are the parents of a French national who left France in 2014, with her partner for the territory in Syria at that time controlled by the Islamic State. She went on to have children there. Since February 2019, both the mother and her children are currently detained in a camp in North-Eastern Syria in a camp run by the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Our Intervention
In our intervention, RSI drew both upon its expertise and long history of working on international law and human rights matters, as well as its specific field research conducted in respect of and inside the camp at Al-Hol in North-Eastern Syria, where the daughter and grandchildren of the applicants are currently detained.
With reference to this research and experience, RSI provides analysis and information to the Court to assist in its deliberations on the following two matters:
First, RSI provided specific details about the conditions in Al-Hol camp and the experience of women and children of life in these conditions, particularly with respect to the compounding nature of the harm.
Second, RSI referenced leading human rights mechanisms which have been seized of issues pertaining to the women and children in the two camps in North-East Syria (‘NES’), including Al-Hol, and how the approach of those experts may be instructive and valuable for this Court in the present case.
To read our intervention in more detail, please download the document below.
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