Council of Europe Sets to Debate the Immigration Tensions in the Context of the ECHR.

The article focuses on recent international legal and policy developments concerning migration, human rights, and international criminal justice. It details the Council of Europe’s (CoE) December 2025 ministerial decisions to address immigration challenges within the framework of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), including preparing a political declaration to balance state security interests with human rights protections amid irregular migration and criminal foreign nationals. The article also highlights tensions among CoE member states over the ECtHR’s interpretation of the ECHR in migration cases, with some advocating for greater national discretion in expelling foreign criminals and others urging protection of the Convention’s integrity. Additionally, it reports on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) November 2025 announcement of an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur since April 2023, based on a UN Security Council referral despite Sudan not being an ICC state party.