Behrami and Behrami v. France (ECtHR)

In this case, a group of children found a number of unexploded cluster munitions, which had been dropped during aerial bombing against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO in 1999. One of the children threw an unexploded submunition into the air, which exploded, killing Gadaf and seriously injuring Bekir Behrami.

At the material time, in March 2000, the applicants, Bekir Behrami and his father Agim Behrami, lived in the sector of Kosovo for which a multinational brigade led by France was responsible. The brigade was part of an international security force (KFOR) deployed pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The Resolution had also provided for the establishment of a civil administration under the aegis of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which was responsible for supervising demining operations. The question for the Court was whether it had jurisdiction to examine, in light of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, the role played by the states present in these civil and security capacities that were effectively in control of Kosovo.

The Court deicded that the European Convention could not be interpreted in such a way as to place under the control of the Court the actions and omissions of contracting parties covered by UN Security Council resolutions and which were committed prior to or during UN missions aimed at preserving international peace and security, and declared the application inadmissible on the ground that it was incompatible ratione personae.

Last updated on: 01 December 2013