This morning the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights handed down its long-awaited judgment in Al Skeini & Others v United Kingdom, and its partner case of Al Jedda v United Kingdom, concerning whether the United Kingdom had any liability under the Convention for the alleged deaths and detention of individuals in(…)
Following on from Máiréad’s post here, I thought it might be useful to provide a very quick primer on the Court and the Convention, particularly given the level of confusion that is already being expressed about it. For people familiar with the Court (pictured left) there will be nothing new here, but hopefully it will(…)
Various developments in criminal justice policies and practice in Ireland and abroad exemplify a marked aversion towards risk, such as the restriction of the right to bail, situational crime prevention, and gated communities. While risk has always been of concern in the criminal justice context, commentators like Barbara Hudson and Lucia Zedner identify a new(…)
The Third Session of the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is currently underway at the United Nations Head Quarters in New York. The third session began today and concludes Friday. The theme of this session is “Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities through the implementation of the Convention(…)
We are delighted to welcome this guest post from Maeve O’Rourke (left) who is a Harvard Law School Global Human Rights Fellow for 2010-2011 and a graduate of UCD and HLS. It is now a year since the advocacy group, Justice for Magdalenes, provided the Dail with draft language for a redress scheme for survivors of(…)
It was confirmed yesterday that the Irish government has withdrawn its appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Court decision of McKechnie J in Foy v An t-Ard Chláraitheoir & Ors. In that case, the learned High Court judge held that the Irish state was in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights(…)
Since the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 came into effect in December of that year, it has perhaps had less of an impact on Irish litigation and on the politico-legal processes of the State than some might have anticipated or hoped for. However, the Act has created a potentially transformative system for the(…)
Yesterday the UK’s Special Immigration Appeals Commission decided that a number of suspected terrorists (the so-called ‘Pathway Students’) could not be deported to Pakistan as they faced a real risk there of being subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in contravention of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The(…)
In the last ten days two men have died in or following Garda detention. On Saturday Johnny Nevin (39) of Tipperary was detained in Templemore Garda Station, became unwell and was transferred to Nenagh Hospital, where he died. On the 20 April a 39 year-old man was found dead in his cell in Tallaght Garda(…)
On St Patrick’s Day, while we were engaging in national celebrations, the European Commission was addressing the accession of the EU to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). For those who are not familiar with the history of this issue, the European Convention is the basis of human rights protection across Europe and is(…)
