Limitations on the Expulsion of Aliens Imposed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - A Retrospect of 50 Years

Molnár, Tamás (2018) Limitations on the Expulsion of Aliens Imposed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights - A Retrospect of 50 Years. Hungarian Yearbook of International Law and European Law, 2017. pp. 83-104. ISSN 978‐94‐6236‐503‐2

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Abstract

It continues to be a basic premise of international law, just like it was the case fifty years ago, that as a traditional attribute of state sovereignty, States have the inalienable prerogative to decide which aliens are refused entry at the border and/or who are expelled and removed from their territories. However, States must exercise this traditional sovereign power within the restrictions defined by international migration law, with due respect for the growing number of relevant human rights obligations. This piece reviews the respective provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). First, it examines Articles 6 and 7 on the right to life as well as the prohibition of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which implicitly contain the principle of non-refoulement, then Article 13 on the procedural safeguards against the arbitrary expulsion of lawfully staying aliens. Finally, it looks into the further, kind of indirect obstacles to expulsion stemming from other human rights in the ICCPR. The goal of this article is to map and give an overview of how much the set of criteria set forth by the ICCPR regulating the expulsion of aliens has developed in the past fifty years. Furthermore, another objective is to find out which are those universal standards that should be globally applicable in the domestic law and practice of States regarding the expulsion of aliens, embodying a kind of “international minimum standard”.

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