ICON S Conference 17 – 19 June 2016 Humboldt University Berlin

18 HUMAN DIGNITY AS A
CONSTITUTIONAL CATEGORY AND
ITS IMPACT ON ASYLUM LAW
Human dignity has evolved as a basic value in modern
constitutionalism. Granting asylum in case of political
persecution means to protect human dignity. The right
of asylum is closely connected with the constitutional
obligation of a State to respect and to protect this value.
This obligation significantly impacts on the substance,
the exercise and the judicial enforceability of the right
of asylum. The constitutional orders of three countries
will be taken into particular consideration by the
panelists: Turkey, Italy and Czech Republic, all of them
confronted with the current refugee situation. It seems
important to analyze and evaluate in a comparative
view their approaches on asylum law. The German
constitutional situation shall be included in the debate.
Participants
Name of Chair
Room
Selin Esen Arnwine
Luca Mezzetti
Jiří Zemánek
Rainer Arnold
UL6 2249a
Selin Esen Arnwine: Constitutional Rights of
Refugees in Turkey
The various aspects of human dignity imply the
existence of certain Rights: these include the physical
and psychological integrity of an individual and
the absence of repression, torture and ill treatment,
education, health, and work. Refugees are in a vulnerable
position when the concept of human dignity
is considered. This raises the question of refugees’
constitutional rights. Turkey is one of the countries that
are facing with a severe refugee crisis. Indeed, Turkey
alone hosts a far greater number of refugees than all
other Council of Europe signatories combined. Accordingly,
the constitutional rights of refugees in Turkey are
a prescient matter. I explore the rights of refugees in
Turkey within a constitutional law perspective. I discuss
the rights of refugees in the 1982 Constitution, present
and interpret the Constitutional Court’s relevant rulings
and consider their conformity with the European human
rights standards.
Luca Mezzetti: The Interconnection of Human
Dignity and Asylum – The Perspective of Italian
Constitutional Law
The right to asylum is one of the fundamental human
rights recognized in the Italian Constitution. The
constitutional provisions on the right of asylum were
not implemented lacking even an organic law that determines
the conditions of exercise even if case law
of the Supreme Court has established the possibility
of recognizing the right of asylum to foreigners. The
recognition of the refugee is however entered in our
system with the accession to the 1951 Geneva Convention
which defines refugee status and to the 1990
Dublin Convention determining the State responsible
for examining an asylum application lodged in one of
the States of the European Community. The strong
impact of migration flows in Italy has renewed the legal
and jurisprudential debate on asylum legislation and
actions that the Italian legal system should take in order
to ensure the dignity of asylum seekers.
Jiří Zemánek: Constitutional remedies in asylum
matters
Constitutional complaints of asylum seekers
against decisions of administrative justice rejecting
international protection claim a violation of the right
to a fair trial guaranteed by the European Convention
on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental
Freedoms (Article 6), which enjoys the constitutional
status in the Czech Republic. The consolidated line
of case law of the Czech Constitutional Court would
be challenged, when asylum seekers will refer to their
rights under the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union (Article 47), granting an equivalent
protection. However, the EU Charter does not enjoy
a similar status, corresponding to the Convention’s
one (yet). The judicial review of decisions of the Czech
administrative authorities on applications of asylumseekers
in EU law-based matters by ordinary courts
is to be discussed.
Concurring panels 46