EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION / Alla Tymofeyeva (ed.)

CHAPTER IX. PROTOCOL NO. 7 TO THE CONVENTION

MAIN PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE SUBJECT Protocol No. 7 to the Convention was adopted on 22 November 1984 in Strasbourg. It entered into force on 1 November 1988. Germany, Netherlands and the United Kingdom are not parties to this treaty. Basic information on how the rights guaranteed by Protocol No. 7 to the Convention should be interpreted can be found in the Explanatory Report to Protocol No. 7 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ETS No. 117). Protocol No. 7 to the Convention, drawn up within the Council of Europe by the Steering Committee for Human Rights and adopted by the Committee of Ministers, was opened for signature by the member States of the Council of Europe on 22 November 1984. Article 1 of Protocol No. 7 to the Convention Procedural safeguards relating to expulsion of aliens 1. An alien lawfully resident in the territory of a State shall not be expelled therefrom except in pursuance of a decision reached in accordance with law and shall be allowed: a. to submit reasons against his expulsion, b. to have his case reviewed, and c. to be represented for these purposes before the competent authority or a person or persons designated by that authority. An alien may be expelled before the exercise of his rights under paragraph 1.a, b and c of this Article, when such expulsion is necessary in the interests of public order or is grounded on reasons of national security. General principles of the Court and explanations The High Contracting Parties have the discretionary power to decide whether to expel an alien present on their territory , but this power must be exercised in such a way as not to infringe the rights under the Convention of the person concerned (see Bolat , cited above, § 81, and Agee v. the United Kingdom , no. 7729/76, Commission decision of 17 December 1976, DR 7). Paragraph 1 of this Article provides that an individual may be expelled only “in pursuance of a decision reached in accordance with law” and subject to the exercise of certain procedural guarantees. Paragraph 2 allows the authorities to carry out an expulsion before the exercise of these guarantees only when that expulsion is necessary in the interests of public order or national security. The scope of application of Article 1 of Protocol No. 7 extends to aliens “lawfully resident” in the territory of the State in question ( Nowak v. Ukraine , no. 60846/10, § 79, 31 March 2011). It is stressed that an alien lawfully in the territory of a member State of the Council of Europe already benefits from certain guarantees when a measure of expulsion is taken against him, notably those which are afforded by Articles 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) and 8 (right to respect for private and family life), in connection with Article 13 (right to an effective remedy before a national authority) of the Convention, as interpreted by the European Commission and Court and – in those States which are parties – by the European Convention on Establishment of 1955 (Article 3), the European Social Charter of 1961 (Article 19,

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