Human rights 'apply to UK troops'

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: BBC

Human rights laws can be applied to British troops even in combat, a High Court judge has ruled.
...
The court also ruled families of those killed in conflict should get legal aid and access to military documents.
...
But Mr Justice Collins said that although a duty of care could not be expected in combat, troops did not lose all protection.

For example, sending a soldier out on patrol with defective equipment might be a breach of Article 2 of the Human Rights Act - the right to life, which in the event of death requires an independent inquiry.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7342324.stm

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The important thing about that is that the human rights legislation in Britain has 'special privileges' - other legislation has to be compatible with it, and the courts can tell Parliament to revise legislation if it's not. So it's about the closest we have to a constitution.

So it's not surprising to find the government trying to weasel out of this - they don't want to be forced to spend money getting the military decent equipment. They only want to do that if they can get good PR out of it. Notice the Defence Secretary claims "this is criticism which is dated criticism from a different time" , while at the same time appealing against the ruling - because he expects to send troops into harm's way with defective equipment some time in the future.

[Wizard777]

1. Well like couldn't they just have their war catered like we did?