Normalization of Exception: “Grey Zones” in European Human Rights Policy

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the transformation of European political and legal discourse in the field of human rights protection under conditions of migration, security, social, and geopolitical crises. At the centre of the study is political rhetoric centred on the necessity of seeking a “balance” between human rights and the public interest. It is noted that this rhetoric is increasingly used as a political mechanism to justify the limitation or reinterpretation of absolute human rights guarantees in Europe and globally. This tendency is primarily manifested in the growing calls for a restrictive interpretation of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights, which undermine the very principle of the inviolability of these universal standards. The article emphasises that such initiatives create a dangerous precedent of erosion of absolute guarantees in the face of external challenges and crisis-related threats. The author stresses that attempts to lower human rights protection standards are neither neutral nor temporary solutions, but rather constitute a mechanism of political normalisation of the exception, which, in a broader perspective, turns into a mechanism of self-undermining of the European legal order. Under conditions of prolonged instability, this legal order proves incapable of preserving its own integrity and legitimacy. It is demonstrated in the article that through political decisions and changes in the modes of interpretation of imperative norms, a risk emerges of the gradual formation of legal “grey zones” in Europe, in which generally binding Convention guarantees are preserved formally, but in practice are applied in a limited manner, thereby reducing societal sensitivity to human rights violations. It is emphasised that the contemporary debate on the “reform” or “adaptation” of the Convention is not technical or procedural in nature, but constitutes a fundamental political challenge that tests the resilience of the liberal-democratic order, the principle of the rule of law, and the very idea of the inviolability of human dignity. Particular emphasis in the study is placed on the risks faced by Ukraine in the context of war, mass population displacement, and the spread of practices of exceptionality that may be legitimised as necessary or temporary. The article substantiates the position that human rights cannot be an object of political bargaining or situational adjustment, and that human dignity must remain an immutable limit of state power even under conditions of the most profound crises.