UK troops in Iraq 'bound by rights act'

[Englander]

Richard Norton-Taylor
Wednesday December 1, 2004
The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1363258,00.html

A landmark decision by judges in Europe obliges the government to investigate the alleged unlawful killing of Iraqi civilians by UK troops, the high court heard yesterday.

Lawyers acting for relatives of the victims argued that British soldiers in Iraq were bound by the European human rights act. The Ministry of Defence was therefore legally required to launch independent investigations.

Rabinder Singh QC, counsel for families of six Iraqis killed in southern Iraq, challenged the MoD's claim that the deaths, being on foreign soil, were outside the jurisdiction of the human rights act.

He cited the European court of human rights ruling that said the act could apply to the activities of soldiers outside Europe. The ruling related to the case of Issa v Turkey, where Kurds in northern Iraq successfully argued that Turkish soldiers there were bound by the European human rights convention. The court ruled that northern Iraq was then under Turkey's "authority and control".

[indepat]

1. Will a fit soon hit the shan?

[D-Notice]

2. Just to point out:

The Human Rights Act 1998 says that although UK courts have to take into account decisions of the ECtHR, they are not automatically bound by them...

So although the judges will take into account this decision, they do not have to follow it automatically, but because of what the decision is based upon it is likely that the soldiers will be affected by it.

[D-Notice]

3. Dupe, sorry!