High court to rule on torture evidence
A ruling by Britain’s highest court on the use of torture evidence is likely to have profound implications for the worldwide ban on torture, Human Rights Watch (HRW)said today.
Britain’s highest court will convene on Monday, October 17 to consider whether torture evidence obtained from third countries is permitted in domestic British law. The House of Lords Judicial Committee will hear an appeal against an August 2004 majority decision by the Court of Appeal that the U.K. government was entitled to rely on torture evidence in special terrorism cases, provided that the U.K. “neither procured nor connived at” the torture. The use of evidence obtained through torture or other ill-treatment is prohibited by international law.
“When it comes to torture, the rules of the game must not change.” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, “You can’t accept torture evidence without condoning torture.”
Human Rights Watch is part of a coalition of fourteen human rights and anti-torture organizations intervening in the House of Lords case.
Under the Convention against Torture, to which 140 countries including the U.K. are party, evidence obtained under torture is inadmissible in “any proceedings” before a court. The rule is also part of customary international law binding on all states. But a two-to-one majority in the Court of Appeal held that because the convention is not part of British law, the courts did not have to exclude such evidence.
Britain’s highest court will convene on Monday, October 17 to consider whether torture evidence obtained from third countries is permitted in domestic British law. The House of Lords Judicial Committee will hear an appeal against an August 2004 majority decision by the Court of Appeal that the U.K. government was entitled to rely on torture evidence in special terrorism cases, provided that the U.K. “neither procured nor connived at” the torture. The use of evidence obtained through torture or other ill-treatment is prohibited by international law.
“When it comes to torture, the rules of the game must not change.” said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, “You can’t accept torture evidence without condoning torture.”
Human Rights Watch is part of a coalition of fourteen human rights and anti-torture organizations intervening in the House of Lords case.
Under the Convention against Torture, to which 140 countries including the U.K. are party, evidence obtained under torture is inadmissible in “any proceedings” before a court. The rule is also part of customary international law binding on all states. But a two-to-one majority in the Court of Appeal held that because the convention is not part of British law, the courts did not have to exclude such evidence.
posted by Subrosa at Saturday, October 15, 2005
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