The Citizenship Hook: Obligations to British and French Foreign Fighters Under the European Convention on Human Rights

The Citizenship Hook: Obligations to British and

French Foreign Fighters Under the European

Convention on Human Rights

Nicole E. Molinaro*

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

I. DOMESTIC LEGAL REGIMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

A. The United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

1. Temporary Exclusion Orders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

2. Denaturalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

B. France. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

II. THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS – FUNDAMENTAL

PROTECTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556

A. Right to Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556

1. Article 2: The Right to Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

2. Additional Protocol Nos. 6 and 13: The Death Penalty . . 557

B. Article 3: Prohibition of Torture, Cruel, Inhuman and

Degrading Treatment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

III. EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION OF THE ECHR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 561

A. Current Bases for Extraterritorial Jurisdiction . . . . . . . . . . . 561

1. Violations by State Parties Outside of Their Territory . . . 561

2. Risk of Violations by Third Parties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

B. The Case for Extraterritorial Jurisdiction over French and

British Foreign Fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

1. French Foreign Fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

2. British Foreign Fighters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566

IV. ADDITIONAL PROTOCOL 4: EXPANDING EXTRATERRITORIAL JURISDICTION

FOR NATIONALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

A. Article 3 of Additional Protocol No. 4: Prohibition of

Expulsion of Nationals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

1. Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 568

2. Drafting History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

B. Citizenship as a Basis for Jurisdiction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 570

CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

* Nicole E. Molinaro is a J.D. Candidate at Georgetown University Law Center, Class of 2021, and

the Student Editor-in-Chief of the JOURNAL OF NATIONAL SECURITY LAW AND POLICY. She would like to

express her deep gratitude to Professor Mitt Regan for his invaluable guidance and feedback. She would

also like to thank Lucas Scarasso and Ben Rheault for their extraordinary support throughout the editing

process. As Student Editor-in-Chief of this volume, she took no part in any stage of the consideration or

selection of this article for publication and was not aware of the content of those deliberations while they

were ongoing. © 2021, Nicole E. Molinaro.

547

INTRODUCTION

The rise of the Islamic state in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was characterized by un-

precedented numbers of Western citizens travelling across the globe to f‌ight for

the “caliphate.” Western governments were shocked by the tens of thousands of

ISIS supporters, and struggled to address the home-grown radicalism ISIS’s rise

revealed.

1

Though ISIS is by no means gone for good,

2

staggering military

defeats returned much of the land ISIS seized in Iraq and Syria to their respective

governments

3

and created an entirely new humanitarian crisis in the region: what

to do with the thousands of ISIS f‌ighters, both local and foreign, that remained in

custody of the Iraqi and Syrian governments? European states who refuse to take

custody of their nationals, instead maneuvering to have Iraq handle their punish-

ment with its widespread practices of torture and capital punishment, are violat-

ing their obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR or

Convention).

With Syrian President Bashar al-Assad focused on other conf‌licts within

Syria’s borders and most of the ISIS detainees in Syria in the tenuous control of

the Syrian Democratic Forces,

4

Iraq became the only stable government force

with the jurisdiction and infrastructure to try most of these f‌ighters. Currently,

thousands of f‌ighters from Europe face trial in Iraq,

5

and both the United States

6

and Iraq

7

made requests for European states to repatriate their citizens to face trial

at home. European governments have been less than enthusiastic about repatria-

tion;

8

however, few have been as proactive in their opposition as the United

Kingdom (“U.K.”) and France. Since the rise of ISIS, the U.K. has increasingly

relied on a series of counter-terrorism laws to prohibit citizen foreign f‌ighters

1. See, e.g., Anelise Borges, Europe’s problem with jihad: The foreign f‌ighters who tore families

apart, EURONEWS (Mar. 10, 2019), https://perma.cc/X7QL-D4WM; How many IS foreign f‌ighters are

left in Iraq and Syria?, BBC (Feb. 20, 2019), https://perma.cc/3898-WRXF.

2. Mark Giglio & Kathy Gilsinan, The Inconvenient Truth About ISIS, ATLANTIC (Feb. 14, 2020),

https://perma.cc/X4AH-4FEY.

3. Ryan Pickrell, Trump declares 100% of the ISIS caliphate has been liberated, but forces on the

ground say it’s not over yet, BUS. INSIDER (Feb. 28, 2019, 2:51 PM), https://perma.cc/VYN4-6HGP.

4. Hind Hassan, Amel Guettafti & Adam Desiderio, Thousands of Foreign ISIS Fighters in Syria Will

Go on Trial Starting in March, VICE NEWS (Feb. 19, 2020, 6:10 AM), https://perma.cc/K8F2-A2T8.

5. Hollie McKay, Iraq handing out thousands of death sentences in hasty trials for ISIS f‌ighters, FOX

NEWS (Jun. 7, 2019), https://perma.cc/HE59-AJCS.

6. H.J. Mai, Why European Countries Are Reluctant To Repatriate Citizens Who Are ISIS Fighters,

NPR (Dec. 10, 2019, 4:58 PM), https://perma.cc/QBF7-PT45.

7. Iraq could help repatriate or convict detained foreign ISIS f‌ighters in Syria: Iraqi PM, KURDISTAN

24 (Feb. 27, 2019, 10:11 AM), https://perma.cc/9VMS-EEX5.

8. Many European leaders have expressed a desire for a hybrid tribunal to take custody over the

prosecutions of local and foreign ISIS f‌ighters. Helen Warrell, Sweden proposes international tribunal

to try Isis f‌ighters, FIN. TIMES (May 19, 2019), https://perma.cc/M324-28SV. However, these plans have

never fully come to fruition, and States, increasingly confronted with the logistical issues of dealing with

so many former ISIS supporters, have fallen back on Iraq to handle the problem. Pesha Magid, How

Europe is Handing of Its ISIS Militants to Iraq, FOREIGN POL’Y (Jun. 15, 2019, 6:00 AM), https://perma.

cc/D84U-RVV6.

548 JOURNAL OF NATIONAL SECURITY LAW & POLICY [Vol. 11:547