ECHR

Now we’ve got into an even bigger mess over human rights, courtesy of guess who?

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If ever it needed reminding, the importance of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its court in Strasbourg was underlined by the comments of the former Lord Chief Justice to MPs the other day.  As it stands Sir Declan Morgan feared that Westminster’s latest attempt at a Legacy Bill would be struck down by the Court as  in basic violation of human rights. But there is an even more fundamental dimension to this. ECHR rights are embedded in …

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Former chief justice’s frustrations boil over at deadlock over the Legacy Bill. He tells MPs : “people need a kick up the bottom.”

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The former Lord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan allowed his frustrations to boil over at a hearing of the Commons NI Committee yesterday examining the government’s Legacy bill. The earlier draft Bill  dating back 12 years for a with a powerful Historical Investigations  Unit at its core which had been finally  endorsed by most local parties was abruptly scrapped by the British government and replaced by a radical new version for a de facto amnesty.   Not that they admit to …

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Electors, Prisoners and the ECHR

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There are complicated rules about who can and can’t vote, and who can and can’t be a candidate in UK elections. It also depends on the type of election, local, for Westminster or for the EU. I’ve put up a short and incomplete summary here—it’s already quite turgid enough, and I’m not going to repeat it. There are a couple of problematic areas. EU nationals who are resident in UK can vote, as a rule, in local and EU elections, …

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Will dropping the ECHR ‘void’ the ‘Good Friday Agreement’?

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So the Tories want to hack the European Convention on Human Rights out of the, erm, British Constitution? [Yep, but Cameron had to get rid of Dominic Grieve before he tried it – Ed]… Erm, well as Fergal Crehan pointed out on Twitter, there’s a little matter of an international treaty to ponder… Here it is, in the Good Friday Agreement. We did our part. Now Cameron wants to welsh on the deal pic.twitter.com/bcR3CkVjo1 — lɐƃɹǝℲ (@Fergal) October 2, 2014 …

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#Finucane: was Nelson a rogue or rogue agent?

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The Attorney General is going to find it harder and harder to sell his no more inquiries, no more investigations proposal. Particularly so when the improvised methods of ‘investigation’ appear to have been little more than tactics for the British government to avoid decommissioning its own violent legacy. Far from finally drawing a line around the issues connected to the murder of Pat Finucane, further research has now shown that the background given by de Silva on Brian Nelson and …

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OPONI wants more history, less inquiry…

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Over at The Detail, Barry McCafferty is reporting that the Police Ombudsman’s office is now saying that it can no longer investigate the killings of anyone shot dead by a police officer during the Troubles. “A test case in the Supreme Court (House of Lords) earlier this year has confirmed to us that we cannot investigate deaths from the Troubles which have previously been investigated unless there is new evidence.” The Ombudsman spokesman said it would now ask government to introduce …

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“While the conduct of the applicant had contributed somewhat to the delay…”

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The BBC reports the European Court of Human Rights ruling against the Irish government in the case taken by Maze escapee Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane following the collapse of his trial on charges relating to the kidnap of Don Tidey in 1983. The iol report notes part of the ruling The Court ruled in favour of the former IRA commander in the Maze and found the 10-and-a-half-year wait from his arrest in 1998 until he walked free was excessive. The ECHR ordered the …

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