The Road to Chisinau - Politics and the ECHR plus Tackling State Threats to the UK

About this episode

The episode discusses the political implications of the Chisinau Declaration and its potential impact on the European Court of Human Rights' decision-making regarding deportations and asylum applications.

After a year of political pressure from a growing number of Member States concerned to counter populist anti-ECHR rhetoric over asylum, illegal migration and deportation of foreign criminals, the 46 members of the Council of Europe issued the Chisinau Declaration on 15th May 2026 (https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/council-of-europe-foreign-ministers-adopt-political-declaration-on-the-echr-and-migration). The Declaration targets the two articles of the ECHR most frequently deployed by migrants to halt deportations – the Article 3 absolute prohibition on torture and inhuman/degrading treatment and the Article 8 qualified right to respect for private and family life. While the Declaration is a political document and not legally binding, it’s clear purpose is to exert pressure on the European Court of Human Rights and domestic courts to change course so that member States have greater freedom to circumvent previous human rights barriers, more easily deport/extradite foreign nationals and process asylum applications with less legal scrutiny by the Strasbourg Court. In this week’s episode Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC discuss the politics behind the Chisinau Declaration and ask…

People in this episode

Hosts: Ken Macdonald KC, Tim Owen KC

Topics covered

• ECHR
• Chisinau Declaration
• asylum
• deportation
• human rights
• politics

Keywords

• Chisinau Declaration
• ECHR
• asylum
• deportation
• human rights
• Rajiv Menon KC
• Council of Europe

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Council of Europe, European Court of Human Rights, Court of Appeal

More episodes of Double Jeopardy - UK Law and Politics

• The Murder of Henry Nowak · June 10, 2026 · 49 min
• The Fordingbridge Rape Sentences: The Dilemma of Sentencing Children for Serious Crime. · June 3, 2026 · 43 min
• Jeremy Bamber and a Free Press: UK Justice Turns Out the Lights · May 27, 2026 · 49 min
• Failing to Face Down Fraud: Does the SFO Have a Future? · May 13, 2026 · 41 min
• AI, Hallucinations, and the Law · May 7, 2026 · 50 min
• Iran - Trump’s Permanent War? · May 7, 2026 · 44 min