Commentary on the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights of 20 July 2010 in the case N. v. Sweden (application No. 23505/09)

The text comments on the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case N. v. Sweden. The applicant Ms N. was an Afghan national and an asylum-seeker in Sweden. The asylum request lodged by her and her husband was rejected by the Swedish authorities. Subsequently Ms N. lodged another request based on the breakup of her marriage. By separating from her husband Ms N. broke Afghan traditions and was threatened by social exclusion if expelled to Afghanistan. The request was rejected as well and Ms N. submitted an application to the ECtHR. She successfully claimed that her expulsion to Afghanistan would violate Art. 3 of the ECHR. Thus, the ECtHR established a new protection standard for female asylum-seekers. Yet, a careful analysis of the case identifies some shortcomings of the reasoning.