Human rights
R (on the application of Youssef) v Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs [2021] EWHC 3188 (Admin), [2021] All ER (D) 17 (Dec)
The Queen’s Bench Division dismissed the claimant’s application for judicial review of the review mechanism for the continuation of asset-freezing scheme provided in the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 and the ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida (United Nations Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/466). The claimant alleged that the scheme had not allowed him access to a court to review his original listing as a ‘sanctioned person’ by the United Nations Al-Qaida and Taliban Financial Sanctions Committee and the present imposition of the asset-freezing regime, contrary to Arts 6 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). The court held that the remedy available under the Act and the Regulations was ‘effective’, in the sense that the court could order the Secretary of State to use her best endeavours to procure the removal of that listing by the only body able to do so, the UN Security Council.
