Georges Ravarani, ‘Assessment of the credibility of asylum-seekers: The burden of proof and the limits of the ECHR’s examination’, European Court of Human Rights, 2017

Abstract

The assessment of credibility and the burden of proof are core issues in asylum cases. They raise very concrete questions that national courts have to deal with, being assisted and guided in this task by the European Court of Human Rights.In the first part of my contribution, allow me to briefly outline the Court’s recent case-law in this field(I) . Moreover, the Strasbourg case-law is of course far from being self-sufficient: it has to be seen in a more global context involving other important players. The other European court, the ECJ, has also developed a significant body of case-law in the field of asylum as part of the creation of an EU area of freedom, security and justice, interpreting instruments such as the EU Qualification Directive. Most importantly, it remains for the national authorities and, in the last instance, the national courts to decide directly on asylum claims. So in the second part of my contribution, I will deal with the problems that arise when national courts implement in practice the case-law of both European courts (II).