Friday, July 8, 2011

Interference

Soldiers and other military forces have a difficult job to do whilst they are in action, sometimes decisions have to be made on the spur of the moment which can often have fatal consequences, either for the troops or those they oppose. One thing they should at least have confidence in is that they will receive the benefit of the doubt and be judged from a military standpoint over such decisions, rather than by rules primarily designed to be applied to civilians.
Telegraph.
British troops accused of unlawfully killing civilians in Iraq breached human rights laws by failing to properly investigate their deaths, European judges ruled yesterday. 
Judges concluded that the actions of British soldiers in Iraq were covered by Europe’s human rights convention during the time they were responsible for the security of parts of the country.
The landmark judgment by the European Court of Human Rights overturns a ruling by the House of Lords in 2007 that there was no such human rights jurisdiction surrounding the deaths of five civilians, because it was outside of the UK’s borders.
The Government must now pay tens of thousands of pounds in damages to the relatives of the five and lawyers last night warned the “monumental” ruling could lead to a flood of claims over the treatment of Iraqis by British troops.
The decision will also further fuel concerns over the influence of European judges on rulings made by the UK domestic courts.
Yes again it's that damned European Court of Human Rights again interfering in how we go about the business of  running things our way. Despite the fact that these cases weren't in Europe, despite the case that what the military do should be held to a differing standard, the ECHR has again stepped in cost us a fortune, opened the gates to a flood of claims and put our troops lives at risk as they may now be in danger of hesitating by fearing an ECHR reprisal.
The ECHR should have no say whatsoever on the lives of any UK citizen, though that has never stopped them in the past, they especially should have no say in the conduct of our military, that's in the domain of military courts and military justice, not civil justice.
For the life of me I cannot understand why our politicians signed us up to this abominable court? It persistently interferes in the daily life of of this land, overturning decisions made under UK laws designed for UK citizens, businesses and institutions. The only thing it seems good for is keeping lawyers well fed from the money they make out of it.
Still, I maintain, no foreign court should ever have jurisdiction over UK military forces, not now, not ever!

2 annotations:

thespecialone said...

Mostly the media will not be interested in this at the moment because of the hysteria surrounding the NOTW.

Captain Haddock said...

"For the life of me I cannot understand why our politicians signed us up to this abominable court? It persistently interferes in the daily life of of this land, overturning decisions made under UK laws designed for UK citizens, businesses and institutions" ...

Simple answer QM ..

Because old Slot-Gob saw it as her golden opportunity to enhance both her personal status & wealth .. and that's it, in a nutshell ..