Update NANSEN Note – Medical documents in the asylum procedure

In 2020, NANSEN published an analysis of how the Istanbul Protocol – the tool for the medical documentation of torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment – works, and how medical certificates prepared in accordance with this Protocol are taken into account in the asylum procedure. 

You can find this updated note here, together with an Addendum on the case law (2020) of the Council for Alien Law Litigation. In this Addendum, the weight given to forensic reports prepared by Constats vzw  in determining a well-founded fear of being persecuted or a real risk of suffering serious harm is examined in the light of relevant ECtHR case law. 

Read: 

• NANSEN Note 2020/01 Update: Forensic documents in the asylum proceedings 
• And: Addendum on the analysis of 2020 case law  

For further information, we also recommend the following publications: 

• Crine Z., Raimondo F., “Medical Certificates in the Asylum Cases: jurisprudential trends and challenges in the practices”, Cahiers de l’EDEM, February 2022.