The High Contracting Parties shall secure to everyone within their
jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in Section I of this Convention.
In Soering v United Kingdom 161 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A) (1989), the European Court of
Human Rights, held that the UK government had a responsibility to uphold the rights
of an individual in the UK under Article 3 (the prohibition on inhuman and degrading
treatment), even where the threat to those rights came from outside the jurisdiction
of either the UK or the European Court of Human Rights. In the circumstances of the
case this prevented the UK extraditing Soering to the US, for as long as there
remained a substantial risk extradition would culminate in his detention on ‘death
row’.
The Council of Europe, Manual on Human Rights and the Environment, 2012, Part II,
Chapter 1 (Right to Life), states as follows:
“(a) The right to life is protected under Article 2 of the Convention: This
Article does not solely concern deaths resulting directly from the actions of
the agents of a State, but also lays down a positive obligation on States to
take appropriate steps to safeguard the lives of those within their
jurisdiction. This means that public authorities have a duty to take steps to
guarantee the rights of the Convention even when they are threatened by
other (private) persons or activities that are not directly connected with the
State …”
More specifically the procedural aspect of the right to life demands an effective
investigation into loss of life to determine accountability for violations, as
emphasised by the European Court of Human Rights3:
The State’s positive obligation [to uphold the right to life] also requires an
effective independent judicial system to be set up so as to secure legal
means capable of establishing the facts, holding accountable those at fault
and providing appropriate redress to the victim …
The jurisdiction of the Commission, in other words, is determined by the location (or
citizenship) of the victims, and the Commission’s responsibility to uphold the rights
of the Petitioners, rather than the identity or whereabouts of those allegedly
responsible for the violations.
2.3 Jurisdiction over the ‘carbon majors’
It does not follow from the Commission’s jurisdiction to investigate the matters
raised by the Petition, that it has jurisdiction over any specific party. Indeed Rule 7,
Section 2 of the Omnibus Rules implies a different understanding of its role:
3
CASE OF İLBEYİ KEMALOĞLU AND MERİYE KEMALOĞLU v. TURKEY
(Application no. 19986/06), 2012
6