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11/03/2004
HRC 'disappointed' at Law Lords' decision on McKerr case
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission have today expressed "disappointment" that the Law Lords have "unanimously decided that standards required by the European Convention on Human Rights are not to be applied to investigations into killings occurring before October 2000".
The reaction was in response to the decision announced today by the House of Lords in a case brought by the son of Gervaise McKerr, who was shot dead by RUC officers at Tullygally Road in Lurgan on 11 November 1982.
Speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Commission, Brice Dickson, said: “We are extremely disappointed at this decision, especially as it had seemed from an earlier decision on Article 2 that the House of Lords was prepared to apply the European Convention retrospectively.
"The Commission will be examining the judgments very carefully with a view to considering what alternative mechanisms may need to be put in place to ensure that the families of victims of the troubles can get better access to information about how those deaths occurred."
In May 2001 the son won his case in the European Court of Human Rights, when it was decided unanimously that the United Kingdom authorities had not provided the kind of effective investigation into the killing of his father that was required by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In Belfast Mr McKerr Jnr persuaded the Court of Appeal in January 2003 that there should be an Article 2 compliant investigation into his father’s death.
On appeal to the House of Lords the Crown has now successfully argued that the standards required by Article 2 are to be applied only to killings occurring after 2 October 2000, the date on which, by virtue of the Human Rights Act 1998, the European Convention became part of the law throughout the UK.
The HRC described today’s decision as a "blow to all those who want the hundreds of unsolved killings which occurred during the troubles in Northern Ireland to be thoroughly investigated".
(SP)
The reaction was in response to the decision announced today by the House of Lords in a case brought by the son of Gervaise McKerr, who was shot dead by RUC officers at Tullygally Road in Lurgan on 11 November 1982.
Speaking on behalf of the Human Rights Commission, Brice Dickson, said: “We are extremely disappointed at this decision, especially as it had seemed from an earlier decision on Article 2 that the House of Lords was prepared to apply the European Convention retrospectively.
"The Commission will be examining the judgments very carefully with a view to considering what alternative mechanisms may need to be put in place to ensure that the families of victims of the troubles can get better access to information about how those deaths occurred."
In May 2001 the son won his case in the European Court of Human Rights, when it was decided unanimously that the United Kingdom authorities had not provided the kind of effective investigation into the killing of his father that was required by Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In Belfast Mr McKerr Jnr persuaded the Court of Appeal in January 2003 that there should be an Article 2 compliant investigation into his father’s death.
On appeal to the House of Lords the Crown has now successfully argued that the standards required by Article 2 are to be applied only to killings occurring after 2 October 2000, the date on which, by virtue of the Human Rights Act 1998, the European Convention became part of the law throughout the UK.
The HRC described today’s decision as a "blow to all those who want the hundreds of unsolved killings which occurred during the troubles in Northern Ireland to be thoroughly investigated".
(SP)
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