European Arrest Warrant Act 2003

Fundamental rights.

37

37.—(1) A person shall not be surrendered under this Act if—

(a) his or her surrender would be incompatible with the State's obligations under—

(i) the Convention, or

(ii) the Protocols to the Convention,

(b) F141[]

(c) there are reasonable grounds for believing that—

(i) the F142[relevant arrest warrant] was issued in respect of the person for the purposes of facilitating his or her prosecution or punishment in the issuing state for reasons connected with his or her sex, race, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, language, political opinion or sexual orientation, or

(ii) in the prosecution or punishment of the person in the issuing state, he or she will be treated less favourably than a person who—

(I) is not his or her sex, race, religion, nationality or ethnic origin,

(II) does not hold the same political opinions as him or her,

(III) speaks a different language than he or she does, or

(IV) does not have the same sexual orientation as he or she does,

or

(iii) were the person to be surrendered to the issuing state—

(I) he or she would be sentenced to death, or a death sentence imposed on him or her would be carried out, or

(II) he or she would be tortured or subjected to other inhuman or degrading treatment.

(2) In this section—

“Convention” means the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms done at Rome on the 4th day of November, 1950, as amended by Protocol No. 11 done at Strasbourg on the 11th day of May, 1994; and

“Protocols to the Convention” means the following protocols to the Convention, construed in accordance with Articles 16 to 18 of the Convention:

(a) the Protocol to the Convention done at Paris on the 20th day of March, 1952;

(b) Protocol No. 4 to the Convention securing certain rights and freedoms other than those already included in the Convention and in the First Protocol thereto done at Strasbourg on the 16th day of September, 1963;

(c) Protocol No. 6 to the Convention concerning the abolition of the death penalty done at Strasbourg on the 28th day of April, 1983;

(d) Protocol No. 7 to the Convention done at Strasbourg on the 22nd day of November, 1984.

Annotations

Amendments:

F141

Repealed (1.05.2024) by European Arrest Warrant (Amendment) Act 2024 (9/2024), s. 31(b), S.I. No. 180 of 2024, subject to transitional provision in s. 2.

F142

Substituted (30.03.2021) by European Union (European Arrest Warrant Act 2003) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I. No. 150 of 2021), reg. 28, in effect as per reg. 1(2).

Editorial Notes:

E48

Previous affecting provision: subs. (1)(b) amended (30.03.2021) by European Union (European Arrest Warrant Act 2003) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I. No. 150 of 2021), reg. 28, in effect as per reg. 1(2); para. (b) repealed (1.05.2024) as per F-note above.