Proposal for a draft Marriage Act 1949 (Remedial) Order 2006 : Sixteenth report of session 2005-06, report, together with formal minutes and Appendices

Draft Marriage Act 1949 (Remedial) Order 2006 : Twenty-ninth report of session 2005-06, report, together with formal minutes and Appendix

This report, from the joint House of Lords and House of Commons Committee (Joint Committee on Human Rights, HLP 156/HCP 527, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780104013410), is a follow-up to an earlier report, (HLP 185-I/HCP 701-I, session 2005-06, ISBN 9780104008638). This report focused on the UN Convention Against Torture and its applicability to the UK armed forces. This new report considers discrepancies in the evidence provided to the Committee about the use of prohibited interrogation techniques in Iraq. The Committee's conclusions, were as follows: that conditioning techniques such as hooding and the use of stress positioning were used by some British troops in Iraq, despite such techniques been prohibited in 1972; that the hooding and stress positioning by the First Queen's Lancashire Regiment in 2003, was based on legal advice from Brigade headquarters; that the interpretation of using such techniques may have been too narrow and interpreted as only applying to interrogation in Northern Ireland; that the prohibition of such techniques was not clearly articulated to the troops in Iraq; up until 2005, interrogation personnel were trained in proscribed techniques, demonstrating what they might be subjected to if captured. The Committee is yet to receive an explanation from the Ministry of Defence for the the discrepancies between the evidence given to the Joint Committee in 2004 and 2006 on the use of prohibited conditioning techniques and recommends that the Secretary of State for Defence should confirm a detailed response will be received about the discrepancies, following the public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa.

"Constitutes the Terrorism Series' first expansion into non-U.S. legal regimes, and this initial volume deals solely with the UK's approach to security law. Ever since the London bombings of July 7th, 2005, the UK has been faced with the challenge of improving the nation's security while maintaining its proud tradition of civil liberties."--Publisher's website.

Section 6 of the Human Rights Act (HRA) makes it unlawful for public authorities to act in breach of Convention rights. UK courts have adopted a restrictive interpretation of the meaning of public authority, potentially depriving numerous, often vulnerable people, from the human rights protection afforded by the HRA. There has been little evidence of progress since the previous report on this matter (HL 39/HC 382, 7th report session 2003-4, ISBN 9780104004173). Chapter 2 examines developments in case-law since 2004 and the Committee considers the Government's 2005 guidance on contracting for services in the light of the Human Rights Act takes a very negative approach to the difficulties facing the use of contracts to secure better the protection of human rights, lacks accessibility and is difficult to understand, and has little or no influence on the procurement policies of local authorities. In Chapter 3, the Committee considers the case for further action to overcome the problems arising from a narrow interpretation of public authority. It concludes that the practical implications of the current case law are such that some service users are deprived of a right to an effective remedy for any violation of their Convention rights. The Committee has not seen any convincing evidence that providers would leave the public services market if they were subject to the duty to act compatibly with Convention rights, despite the Government's premature and unsupported concerns about market flight. In Chapter 4 the Committee considers steps which could be taken to resolve the problems identified, including use of legislation to clarify the meaning of public authority in section 6 HRA through a separate, supplementary and interpretative statute.

Drawing special attention to: Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill (HL Bill 16, ISBN 9780215709288)

Work of the Committee in 2007 and the state of human rights in the UK : Sixth report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal Minutes