Non-Refoulement in Strasbourg: Making Sense of the Assessment of Individual Circumstances

When evaluating whether the expulsion or return of an applicant gives rise to a real risk of treatment proscribed by Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the principle of non-refoulement contained therein, the European Court of Human Rights must assess the general situation in the relevant country as well as the applicant’s personal circumstances. It is therefore of the utmost importance to identify which individual factors are considered relevant to this assessment. At the same time, however, the case law has been considered unclear on this issue. This article presents the findings of a thematic analysis of the Court’s case law, which seeks to clarify the Court’s practice by identifying the key individual factors that either enhance or ameliorate risk of ill-treatment in different contexts.