THE PAT FINUCANE CENTRE WELCOMES UNPRECENTED IRISH GOVERNMENT DECISION ON TORTURE The Pat Finucane Centre welcomes the Irish government’s decision to seek to re-open its case that British forces used torture against fourteen internees in 1971 (the “Hooded Men”). The PFC firmly believes that the so-called “five techniques” amounted to torture and that three successive British governments (under Edward Heath, Harold Wilson and James Callaghan) deliberately deceived the European court. We also believe this is a significant step forward against the use of torture throughout the world as the European Court’s ruling that the “five techniques” did not amount to torture has been used by governments to justify cruelty against prisoners from Afghanistan to Iraq to Guantanamo. The PFC and RTE have both unearthed new evidence in official British government files showing that London was aware, at the time the men were tortured, that their treatment was illegal under international law. The documents show that the decision to use torture (and it was described as such) was taken at a high ministerial level. The original 1978 European Court of Human Rights hearing found the men were subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment – not torture – in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The recently discovered documents show the British government withheld vital medical, legal and policy documents from both the European Court and the Irish government in respect of the case taken by the Irish state on torture. Paul O’Connor of the PFC said: “Among the many documents we discovered were the medical notes from an examination of one of the victims. The doctor responsible was the British government’s chief medical witness. “These medical notes disclosed the man had a chronic medical condition prior to ‘in-depth interrogation’ which, even by the British government’s own rules, should have excluded him from in-depth interrogation. “We know his medical condition worsened during interrogation and that he was released into psychiatric care. He then died prematurely, just days after another medical examination in June 1975. “None of this was disclosed to the European Court.” The inquiry into the 2003 murder of an Iraqi civilian, Baha Mousa, by British soldiers was told that the five techniques had again been used in Iraq by every single battle group in the field. The failure by the ECtHR to attach the special stigma of torture to a member state in 1978 had fatal consequences for Baha Mousa. Others took note. In 1999 the High Court of Israel ruled that certain interrogation practices used by the General Security Service against Palestinian prisoners, whilst illegal, did not constitute torture and specifically referenced the Ireland v UK judgement in doing so. The US Attorney General also took note when seeking to justify torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay. The infamous ‘torture memos’ prepared for President Bush made direct reference to the Ireland v UK judgment. At p31 the memo reads, “The European Court of Human Rights….recognised a wide array of acts that constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, but do not amount to torture. Thus they appear to permit, under international law, an aggressive interpretation as to what amounts to torture, leaving what label to be applied only, where extreme circumstances exist.” Notes for Editors: Article 3 European Convention on Human Rights states that: No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The European Court of Human Rights has decided in a number of cases that allegations of torture should be independently and effectively investigated by the state with jurisdiction.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 15:52:58 +0000
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