5 November 2015 by Guest Contributor
Cian C. Murphy & Natasha Simonsen
The Government has published a draft Bill on Investigatory Powers that it hopes to see through Parliament within a year. If it becomes law, the Investigatory Powers Bill will replace much, but not all, of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, as well as the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014.
It is the Government’s response to the Edward Snowden revelations, and to three different reports that made almost 200 reform recommendations between them.
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5 November 2015 by Adam Wagner
I’m very excited to tell you about RightsInfo’s new project, #YourHumanRights. We have produced 16 beautiful infographics each representing a key right in the European Convention. They don’t just show the text, but also explain in plain-English where the rights come come from, what they mean and why they matter
Click here to see Your Human Rights
Wait! There’s more…
Everyone is welcome to download and print these infographics for free by clicking the “download” link.
But if you or your organisation want a professional-quality print, for the first time on RightsInfo, you can order prints from our partner Magnolia Box. Each article is available as an individual poster for either £9 or £12 depending on size – buying the set saves you at least £40. We even have framed versions, and postcards, perfect timing with the holiday season just around the corner!
RightsInfo is part of Global Dialogue, a charity, so we are not out to make a profit. But we have been asked so many times for professional quality printing options, we decided to open this up for these infographics.
Please share these infographics to get the word out about why human rights matter.
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3 November 2015 by Guest Contributor
A quick post to announce that the UK Human Rights Blog has now been optimised for mobile use.
We hope this will mean a slicker (and less eye-straining) experience when accessing the latest human rights news and analysis on your smartphones and tablets.
You shouldn’t have to download anything to access the site in its new format – just go to ukhumanrightsblog.com from your hand-held device!
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2 November 2015 by Hannah Lynes
In the news
Following almost fourteen years of detention without trial, the last British resident to be held in Guantanamo Bay, Shaker Aamer, has been released. Amnesty International has described Aamer’s plight as “one of the worst of all the detainees at Guantanamo,” given the time involved, the lengthy spells in solitary confinement and the torture he was allegedly subjected to.
“The case against the US authorities that perpetrated this travesty of justice, and British ministers and security personnel who allegedly colluded with them, should now be vigorously pursued”, writes the Observer. Long-standing questions remain surrounding claims of UK complicity in human rights abuses: in the 2009 civil case of former Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed, the High Court pointedly noted that the UK’s relationship with US authorities went “far beyond that of a bystander or witness to the alleged wrongdoing.”
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31 October 2015 by Jim Duffy
And so, thirteen years after his capture, eight years after the US Government cleared him for release, and seven years after President Obama’s spectacularly broken promise to shut down Guantánamo, Shaker Aamer has left the prison, as innocent as the day he went in.
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30 October 2015 by Guest Contributor
Marina Wheeler
Remember the three girls from Bethnal Green Academy, who in February slipped through Gatwick security to join so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)? If, watching the footage, you exclaimed, “how can we stop this?”, then read on. Eight months and a massacre in Tunisia later, the Courts have intervened in more than 35 cases to prevent the flight of children to Syria or to seek their return.
In the very first cases, in which Martin Downs of these Chambers appeared, the High Court’s inherent jurisdiction was invoked to make the children wards of court. The value of this mechanism, previously used in child abduction cases and to thwart forced marriages, is that the ward requires permission of the Court to leave the jurisdiction, and passports can be seized. (See, for example, Re Y (A Minor: Wardship) [2015] EWHC 2098 (Fam)).
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29 October 2015 by Adam Wagner
No particular reason….
We’re about to have a fifth birthday party for the UK Human Rights Blog (a bit late – we turned five at the end of March…) so it seems like as good as time as any to reflect on what we have achieved.
First, some numbers.
- Five years and seven months
- 2,245 posts
- 4.7 million hits
- 6,258 comments
- 13,273 subscribers (just email – loads more on Facebook and Twitter)
Not bad, eh? I started this blog towards the end of my pupillage (year of training) at 1 Crown Office Row in 2009. Thanks to the incredibly hard work and dedication of our dedicated band of authors and editors, the UKHRB has become a key source of human rights information in the UK and also across the world. Particular thanks to Angus McCullough QC, Rosalind English, David Hart QC and Martin Downs who have been total champions.
After five years on the job, you will probably noticed that I have drawn back my involvement to concentrate on my new project, RightsInfo, which fills in some gaps which the blog couldn’t have, without changing its basic nature. Into the breach has stepped another 1COR hero, Jim Duffy, who has brought a fresh approach and a lot of fantastic new authors. We are very grateful to him.
Anyway, keep reading and thanks for all of your support, comments and bizarre emails. See you at our 10 year party.
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29 October 2015 by Kate Beattie
The reforms to judicial review proceedings in Part 4 of the Criminal Justice & Courts Act 2015 have been closely analysed in a timely report by JUSTICE, the Public Law Project and the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law.
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29 October 2015 by Isabel McArdle
The European Parliament has awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Saudi Arabian blogger, Raif Badawi. The Prize, named after Andrei Sakharov who spoke out publicly against the nuclear arms race during the Cold War and criticised Soviet society, is awarded to those who “have made an exceptional contribution to the fight for human rights across the globe, drawing attention to human rights violations as well as supporting the laureates and their cause.”
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29 October 2015 by Thomas Raine
O’Neill and Lauchlan v Scottish Ministers [2015] CSOH 93, 28th October 2015 – read judgment
The Outer House of the Court of Session has dismissed challenges brought by two convicted paedophiles to the Scottish Prison Service’s refusal to allow them to visit each other in prison. The decisions were challenged under articles 8 and 14 ECHR, as it was claimed that the prisoners were in a homosexual relationship.
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28 October 2015 by David Hart KC
Bank Mellat v HM Treasury [2015] EWCA Civ 105, 23 October 2015 read judgment
Bank Mellat is an Iranian bank, initially subjected to a 2009 order which prohibited anybody in the UK from dealing with it – until the Supreme Court quashed it: here, and my posts here and here.
The Treasury tried again, by orders made in 2011 and 2012 addressed at all Iranian banks, not just Bank Mellat. The EU has now taken over regulation of these banks.
In the current proceedings, the Bank seeks to set the 2011 and 2012 orders aside. These restrictions are, the Treasury says, addressed at the financing of Iran’s nuclear programme, in which all Iranian banks are complicit. Bank Mellat denies this, and the conundrum in the case is how to make sure that the challenge is fairly tried. Collins J (my post here) thought that the Treasury had not revealed enough about its case, and, in substance, on appeal the CA agreed.
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28 October 2015 by Rosalind English
SF, Re [2015] EWCOP 68 (26 October 2015) – read judgment
This Court of Protection case has, unusually, made the papers, and when you read the details you won’t be surprised. What the judge described as a “callous and calculating” son charged his widowed mother, who suffered from dementia, more than £117 000 for “out of pocket expenses” visiting her in her nursing home. He had been in charge of her expenses since 2004 when Sheila (the mother) had been admitted to hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983. But alarm bells only went off after her unpaid nursing bills reached nearly £30 000. The Public Guardian launched an enquiry that led to this hearing of an application for the court to revoke the son’s (Martin’s) Enduring Power of Attorney (‘EPA’) and to direct him to cancel its registration. The Public Guardian also applied to freeze Sheila’s bank account.
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26 October 2015 by Rosalind English
Fountain pen on a blank page open on a diary book…
Tickle v Council of the Borough of North Tyneside and others [2015] EWHC 2991 (Fam) (19 October 2015) – read judgment
Before the court were cross applications by a journalist and the local authority regarding care proceedings which the former wished to report. The individual in question was a mother (representing herself in these proceedings) who had had a number of children taken into care in the past. Her life had been “blighted” historically by serious mental health problems which have at times made it unsafe for her to care for her children. At the time of this application, it seemed, those times appeared to be behind her. Be that as it may, she and her children had been through the care system on a number of occasions.
She had shared this experience on social media sites, and had described, in particular, how she fought for her youngest child (a child who was removed at birth) and how she eventually succeeded in having that child live with her. Bodey J, who had read some of her online articles, found them “balanced and responsible”.
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25 October 2015 by Charlotte Bellamy
In the News
“This is, at its heart, a battle of ideas. On one side sit the extremists, with a deliberate strategy to infect public debate, divide our communities and advance their warped worldview,” announced David Cameron last Monday, when the government unveiled their new Counter Extremism Strategy. “On the other side,” he said, “must sit everyone else”.
The question is, how is ‘everyone else who sits on the other side’ to be protected under the proposals? Not without cost, it seems – although laudable in motive, the methods suggested with which to fight this ‘battle of ideas’ run the risk of infringing individuals’ right to freedom of expression. Joshua Rozenberg has called for careful attention to one section of the paper in particular which outlines new proposed powers to “ban extremist organisations”, “restrict harmful activites” and “restrict access to premises that are repeatedly used to support extremism”. The plan to ban extremists from mosques has drawn criticism from the Muslim Council of Britain, the UK’s largest Muslim group, who detected “McCarthyist undertones” in the proposal to compile blacklists. Would restricting access to premises used for extremist purposes restrict extremism itself? As Rozenberg wonders, “What would be the point of closing a hall? It’s not the hall’s fault. People would simply go elsewhere.”
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23 October 2015 by David Hart KC
R (o.t.a. Western Sahara Campaign UK) v. HMRC and DEFRA [2015] EWHC 2898 (Admin) Blake J, 19 October 2015 read judgment
Not primarily about migration, but a case arising out of the long-running conflict between Morocco, as occupying power, and the Western Sahara as occupied territory. For many years, the UN has recognised the Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory which is entitled to exercise its right of self-determination. Morocco does not agree, and has done what occupying powers do, namely send in Moroccan nationals to flood the existing populations, add troops, and commit human rights abuses, according to evidence filed in the case.
You may be wondering how this North-West African problem got to London’s Administrative Court. This is because the challenge is to two EU measures concerning Morocco. The first is a preferential tariff (administered by HMRC) applicable to imports from Morocco of goods originating from the Western Sahara. The second concerns the intended application of an EU-Morocco fisheries agreement about fishing in the territorial waters of Western Sahara.
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The Government has published a draft Bill on Investigatory Powers that it hopes to see through Parliament within a year. If it becomes law, the Investigatory Powers Bill will replace much, but not all, of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, as well as the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014.
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