Category: In the news

Abu Qatada, Facebook at work and prisoner votes – The Human Rights Roundup

19 November 2012 by Daniel Isenberg

This is the first post by the blog’s new rounder-uppper Daniel Isenberg, who joins Sam Murrant. Welcome, Daniel! 

Welcome back to the UK Human Rights Roundup, your weekly bulletin of human rights news. The full list of links can be found here. You can also find our table of human rights cases here and previous roundups here.

This week’s human rights news was dominated by the man who has become the Home Secretary’s bête noire, Abu Qatada.  Elsewhere the UK’s relationship with the Strasbourg Court was addressed by Jack Straw and the Court’s recently-retired President, whilst the Court, itself, criticised the UK’s policy on criminal records data retention.  Meanwhile, in speeches two Court of Appeal judges have made expressed views on human rights and the principle of proportionality.

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Abu Qatada: in the public interest

16 November 2012 by Adam Wagner

You may have heard that the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) decided on Tuesday that Abu Qatada, an alleged terrorist who has been detained for the best part of the last seven years awaiting deportation to his native Jordan, cannot be deported. There would be a real risk, ruled SIAC, that he would face a flagrant denial of justice in his ensuing trial.

Jim Duffy has already commented on the case here, but I thought it would be useful to look at some of the commentary which followed the decision. A bit like the latest Israel-Gaza escalation, controversial human rights decisions now elicit an almost instant (and slightly sad) our-camp-versus-theirs reaction. Following a decision each ‘side’ trundles into action, rolling out the clichés without thinking very hard about the principles. The Prime Minister himself somewhat petulantly said he was “fed up” and “We have moved heaven and earth to try to comply with every single dot and comma of every single convention to get him out of this country.”

It is easy to moan about inaccurate coverage (I often do). But in this case, I do think the strong, almost visceral, reaction to the decision is justified. Leaving aside the slightly mad tabloid anti-Europe or effectively anti-justice coverage, it is understandable that people are uneasy and upset about this decision to keep a suspected terrorist within our borders, and then release him. But that doesn’t mean the decision is wrong.

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Retention and disclosure of police caution data infringe Article 8 – Charles Bourne

15 November 2012 by Guest Contributor

M.M. v United Kingdom (Application no. 24029/07) – read judgment

The only people really not allowed to mention the Holocaust

13 November 2012 by Rosalind English

Peta Deutschland v Germany  (No. 43481/09) – read judgment

Referring to the concentration camps has become an offence on a par with holocaust denial, it seem, in certain contexts.

In 2004 the applicant animal welfare association planned to start an advertising campaign under the head “The Holocaust on your plate”. The intended campaign, which had been carried out in a similar way in the United States of America, consisted of a number of posters, each of which bore a photograph of concentration camp inmates along with a picture of animals kept in mass stocks, accompanied by a short text. One of the posters showed a photograph of emaciated, naked concentration camp inmates alongside a photograph of starving cattle under the heading “walking skeletons”. Other posters showed a photograph of piled up human dead bodies alongside a photograph of a pile of slaughtered pigs under the heading “final humiliation” and of rows of inmates lying on stock beds alongside rows of chicken in laying batteries under the heading “if animals are concerned, everybody becomes a Nazi”. Another poster depicting a starving, naked male inmate alongside a starving cattle bore the title “The Holocaust on your plate” and the text “Between 1938 and 1945, 12 million human beings were killed in the Holocaust. As many animals are killed every hour in Europe for the purpose of human consumption”.

Three individuals filed a request with the Berlin Regional Court to be granted an injunction ordering the applicant association to desist from publishing or from allowing the publication of seven specified posters via the internet, in a public exhibition or in any other form. They submitted that the intended campaign was offensive to them as survivors of the holocaust and violated their human dignity.
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Abu Qatada wins appeal against deportation

12 November 2012 by Rosalind English

Mohammed Othman (Abu Qatada) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Special Immigration Appeals Commission) 12 November 2012 – read judgment

Muslim cleric Abu Qatada has won his appeal against deportation to Jordan, where Mitting J concluded that he would not receive a fair trial.

Qatada was convicted of terror charges in Jordan in his absence in 1999 but so far he has successfully resisted being sent back there because of the risk of an unfair trial, despite the assurances given by Jordan to the Home Secretary assurances that no evidence gained through torture would be used against him. As Mitting J said, once it has been established that there is a “substantial” risk that a person will not receive a fair trial in the destination state,  the government must demonstrate that there is no risk that person will receive a “flagrantly unfair” trial. This is a lower test than demonstrating that no risk at all existed.  But on the basis of SIAC’s findings, Mitting J found that there was in fact a real risk that evidence obtained by torture of two men had been obtained by torture.

A quick scan of the list of “Related Posts” below reveals the prolonged history of this case. Enough already? Apparently not. 
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BNP bus driver, legal aid bills and Abu Qatada – The Human Rights Roundup

11 November 2012 by Sam Murrant

Welcome back to the UK Human Rights Roundup, your weekly bulletin of human rights news. The full list of links can be found here. You can also find our table of human rights cases here and previous roundups here.

The Rahmatullah Supreme Court judgment remained in the spotlight this week, but had to share it with old faces such as Abu Hamza (whose case has managed to keep outraging the public despite his extradition to the US), the loudly ticking clock of prisoner voting and the attendant debate over whether the UK should replace the Human Rights Act with a “British” human rights statute. Meanwhile, the ruling on whether Abu Qatada can be deported to Jordan is coming tomorrow (Monday).

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Upper Tribunal confirms the legitimacy of the new immigration rules – but questions their completeness

8 November 2012 by Rosalind English

MF (Article 8 – new rules) Nigeria [2012] UKUT 00393(IAC) – read judgment

This tribunal decision is the first to tackle the so-called “codification” of Article 8 considerations in immigration law (see  Adam’s post  on the Home Office’s proposals earlier this year).

Before the new immigration rules were introduced in July,  cases involving Article 8 ECHR ordinarily required a two-stage assessment: (1) first to assess whether the decision appealed against was in accordance with the immigration rules; (2) second to assess whether the decision was contrary to the appellant’s Article 8 rights. In immigration decisions, there was no doubt that human rights were rooted in primary legislation: s.84(1)(c) and (g) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act  2002, the “2002 Act”) allows an appeal to be brought against a decision which unlawful under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (c. 42) (public authority not to act contrary to Human Rights Convention) as being incompatible with the appellant’s Convention rights. In addition to this, there is s.33(2) of the UK Borders Act 2007 which provides, as one of the statutory exceptions  to the automatic deportation regime,  “…where removal of the foreign criminal in pursuance of a deportation order would breach (a) a person’s Convention rights”.

But then there was a move to set out an extensive, codified definition of the Article 8 balancing factors, in order to

unify consideration under the rules and Article 8, by defining the basis on which a person can enter or remain in the UK on the basis of their family or private life. 
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UK’s relationship with the Council of Europe soon to reach a turning point – Joshua Rozenberg

7 November 2012 by Guest Contributor

In a couple of weeks’ time, the government’s relationship with the Council of Europe will reach something of a turning point.

If the UK is going to comply with its international treaty obligations, ministers will have to “bring forward legislative proposals” by 22 November that will end what the European court of human rights calls the “general, automatic and indiscriminate disenfranchisement of all serving prisoners”.

That’s all the government has to do. There’s no need to give all or even most prisoners the vote. Parliament doesn’t even have to approve the proposals, although its failure to do so would lead to further challenges in due course.

But the prime minister painted himself into a corner last month. It’s true he offered to have “another vote in parliament on another resolution”. But a resolution is not the same as a bill. And David Cameron said, in terms: “Prisoners are not getting the vote under this government.”

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The rights (and wrongs) of human rights (and human wrongs)

7 November 2012 by Adam Wagner

I have an opinion piece in this week’s Jewish Chronicle, We should support and not condemn Human Rights Act. The “we” in the title is the Jewish community, of which I am a part, although it also amounts to a fairly broad  defence of the Human Rights Act.

The article was at first intended as a direct response to an opinion piece by Jonathan Fisher QC entitled The wrongs of human rights, but because of editorial pressures at the Jewish Chronicle it could not be published until a few weeks later, and as such ended up being a more general article. I have already commented on this blog on why I thought the timing of Fisher’s article was a little odd given that the Bill of Rights Commission, on which he sits, was still consulting the public on the very issues he addressed passionately in the article. I said:

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The Law in These Parts – this Sunday, 2:30pm

6 November 2012 by Adam Wagner

A quick note to say that the UK Jewish Film Festival is showing a fascinating new Israeli documentary (with subtitles), The Law in These Parts, this Sunday at 2:30pm at the Tricycle Cinema in Kilburn. The film will be followed by a discussion, chaired by me, between Danny Friedman of Matrix chambers and Jonathan Turner of 13 Old Square chambers. All details are here.

I have seen the film and it is excellent. It is an examination of legal proceedings in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967. The documentary is made up almost entirely of interviews with former judges in Israel’s security courts, including a Supreme Court justice, which in itself of great interest. Although the legal and moral issues faced up to in the film are in one way unique to Israel, many from the UK legal community will recognise themes in relation to Northern Ireland during the Troubles, as well as broader problems which we are still grappling with involving the use of secret evidence and evidence obtained by torture.

In short, one of the best legal documentaries I have seen, and highly recommended (not just by me – Newsweek described it as “a gripping new documentary“). I hope to see you there, do come and say hello if you can make it. Book here – trailer below

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Habeas corpus, trolling and secret court conspiracy theories – The Human Rights Roundup

5 November 2012 by Wessen Jazrawi

A troll

This is Wessen Jazrawi’s final roundup on the UK Human Rights Blog as she is moving onto pastures new. Thanks to Wessen for her fantastic series of fortnightly roundups – Adam and the UKHRB team.

Welcome back to the UK Human Rights Roundup, your weekly smörgåsbord of human rights news. The full list of links can be found here. You can also find our table of human rights cases here and previous roundups here.

The most significant news of the week has been the decision by the Supreme Court in the case of Yunus Rahmatullah which we consider below. In other news, time is fast running out for the UK government to act on prisoner voting and the European Court displayed the limits of its intervention on domestic violence. Also in today’s roundup is the inaugural list of upcoming UK human rights events – if you would like to add an event to the next roundup, please email.

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The dissenting voices in Rahmatullah: no time for political sensitivities

3 November 2012 by Lois Williams

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and another v Yunis Rahmatullah [2012] UKSC 48 – read judgment.

For a summary of the facts and reasoning in this case please see Rosalind English’s previous post.

Only a few weeks after giving the Birkenhead lecture entitled “Dissenting judgments – self indulgence or self sacrifice?” (See David Hart QC’s previous post), Lord Kerr delivered the leading judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Rahmatullah.   Given that the issue of a man’s liberty was at stake, it could be no real surprise for Lord Kerr or anyone else that there were two dissenting judgments in the cross-appeal provided by Lord Carnwath and Lady Hale. They made clear that in their view the UK should have done more to secure the release of detainee Yunis Rahmatullah and in doing so raised questions as to the proper limits of judicial intervention into the “forbidden area” of foreign policy.

But first what did everyone agree with? The Supreme Court was unanimous in dismissing the Secretary of State’s appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision to issue a writ of habeas corpus to the UK Government. The primary purpose of the hallowed habeas corpus writ is the physical production of the person concerned, in order for the detainer to show that detention is lawful.   Here the problem was that the person concerned, Mr Rahmatullah, although first captured by UK forces in Iraq, is currently detained by US forces in the notorious Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.

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Upper Tribunal confirms illegality of Catholic Charity’s ban on same-sex couple adoption

3 November 2012 by Rosalind English

Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) v Charity Commission (on appeal to the Upper Tribunal) CA/2010/0007  – read judgment

A private adoption agency could not justify its exclusion of same-sex prospective parents by arguing that this policy would keep open a source of funding that would otherwise dry up and reduce the number of adoption placements.

This was an appeal by the Catholic adoption services agency against the First Tribunal’s confirmation of the decision by the Charity Commission that it was not permitted to amend its constitution so as to permit it to continue its previous practice to refuse to offer its adoption services to same sex couples. Here is our post on the FTT’s ruling, which sets out the facts and arguments in the case. To recap briefly, the charity argued that the adoption of its proposed objects was justified under the general prohibition on discrimination under Article 14 ECHR (and its statutory analogy, Section 193 of the Equality Act).  The legitimate aim it pursued was that of providing suitable adoptive parents for a significant number of children who would otherwise go unprovided for. The Charity maintained that unless it were permitted to discriminate as proposed, it would no longer be able to raise the voluntary income from its supporters on which it relied to run the adoption service, and it would therefore have to close its adoption service permanently on financial grounds. The FTT rejected this submission, holding that though the charity’s aim of increasing adoption placements was a legitimate one, the evidence before it did not show that the increased funding of the agency’s adoption work under the auspices of the Roman Catholic church would “inevitably” lead to the prospect of an increased number of adoptions.
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The 21st Century Coroner

31 October 2012 by Jim Duffy

The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 has created the office of Chief Coroner, plucked at the very last minute from the Coalition’s ‘bonfire of the quangos’.  On Friday, the first Chief Coroner, His Honour Judge Peter Thornton QC, delivered The Howard League for Penal Reform’s 2012 Parmoor Lecture.

Six weeks into his post, Judge Thornton presents a frank exposition of the challenges facing the system he now heads, sets out what he considers to be its purpose, and charts its remarkable genesis.

Coroners have, it seems, occupied for the best part of a millennium a peculiar pocket of public life, adapting their function and purpose over time in a manner not always understood by those working outside the system, or even by they themselves.  From the Articles of Eyre to the 2009 Act, via Robin Hood and Richard the Lionheart (the latter does not come out well), the Chief Coroner describes how ‘crowners’, as they were originally known, have evolved from lay magistrates or collectors of fines, to the judges they are today.
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Supreme Court upholds US detention of Yunus Rahmatullah

31 October 2012 by Rosalind English

Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and another (Appellants) v Yunus Rahmatullah (Respondent).  (Read judgment)

 

The Supreme Court has ruled that the law of habeas corpus should not be used to order the US to return a Pakistani national held in US custody  to the UK.

Yunus Rahmatullah was captured by British forces in Iraq in 2004 and later taken to Bagram airbase in Afghanistan having been the subject of “extraordinary rendition”.  As a suspected insurgent he remains in US custody, without charge.

The charity Reprieve challenged the Court of Appeal decision to cancel a release order in favour of Mr Rahmatullah after  they received notification from the US authorities that they intended to return him to Pakistan and would be dealing with the Pakistani authorities directly.  The UK Government also appealed, arguing that the Court of Appeal erred in finding that a writ of habeas corpus can be issued where a respondent has sufficiently arguable control of an applicant, and failed to have proper regard to the implications for foreign relations in requiring a request for release to be made to a foreign sovereign state.

The following summary of the facts and reasoning is based on the Supreme Court’s press summary. See my previous post on the Court of Appeal’s ruling on habeas corpus in the case of Rahmatullah.
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