Amnesty International Report 2004 - United Kingdom

Covering events from January - December 2003

Serious human rights violations continued to take place in the context of the United Kingdom (UK) authorities' response to the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA. Detention conditions in some facilities were inhuman and degrading. In Northern Ireland there were 10 paramilitary killings, the majority of which were committed by Loyalists. Members of armed groups were also responsible for "punishment" shootings and beatings and sectarian attacks. The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the UK authorities had violated the right to life. Draft legislation threatened to withdraw legal safeguards from asylum-seekers and potentially breached international standards.

Background

AI expressed concern about violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the UK military during the war on Iraq and in the context of the occupation of the country which was ongoing at the end of the year (see Iraq entry).

In June the UK ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict with a reservation which AI considered "incompatible with the object and purpose" of the Protocol because it allows the deployment of under-18s in hostilities in certain circumstances.

In October, the UK ratified Protocol No. 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, concerning the abolition of the death penalty in all circumstances.

Response to 11 September 2001

By the end of the year, 14 foreign nationals who could not be deported continued to be interned under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (ATCSA). They were held in high-security facilities under severely restricted regimes.

In February, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) published the report of its February 2002 visit to the UK to review the detention conditions of those held under the ATCSA in two high-security prisons. The CPT noted allegations of verbal abuse; expressed concern about the detainees' access to legal counsel; and remarked that the detention regime and conditions of ATCSA detainees should take into account the fact that they had not been accused or convicted of any crime and the indefinite nature of their detention. The CPT expressed concern about the fact that secret evidence may be considered in hearings under the ATCSA and that detainees and their legal representatives of choice can be excluded from such hearings.

In May, June and July, appeals brought by 10 individuals against their certification as "suspected international terrorists" under the ATCSA were heard in both open and closed sessions; all were dismissed in October. Proceedings under the ATCSA fell far short of international fair trial standards, including the right to the presumption of innocence, the right to a defence and the right to counsel. There was also grave concern at the reliance on secret evidence and at the executive's and judiciary's willingness to rely on evidence extracted under torture. Since only non-UK nationals could be interned, AI also considered the ATCSA discriminatory.

In December, the Committee of Privy Counsellors, who had been charged with reviewing the ATCSA, recommended the urgent repeal of ATCSA powers allowing non-UK nationals to be detained potentially indefinitely.

• In October an appeal by Mahmoud Abu Rideh, a Palestinian refugee and torture victim, against his internment under the ATCSA was rejected by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. At the end of the year he continued to be held at a high-security psychiatric hospital.

In August the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern about increasing racial prejudice against ethnic minorities, asylum-seekers and immigrants; reported cases of "Islamophobia" following the 11 September attacks; discrimination faced by Roma and Travellers; and reports of attacks on asylum-seekers. The Committee also expressed deep concern about provisions of the ATCSA targeting exclusively foreign nationals.

During the year, nine UK nationals, including Asif Iqbal, Shafiq Rasul, Moazzam Begg and Feroz Abbasi, who continued to be held indefinitely – without charge or trial or access to courts, lawyers or relatives – in US custody at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, were "visited" and interviewed on a number of occasions by UK officials, including members of the security services. AI remained deeply concerned that UK authorities were taking advantage of the legal limbo and the coercive detention conditions in which their nationals were held at Guantánamo Bay in US custody to interrogate them and extract information to use in proceedings under the ATCSA.

• By the end of the year, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi national legally resident in the UK, and Jamil Al-Banna, a Jordanian national with refugee status in the UK, remained in US custody at Guantánamo Bay. AI expressed concern about the role that the UK government may have played in their unlawful rendering to US custody, and about its refusal to make representations on their behalf to the US authorities.

Northern Ireland

At the end of the year, the Northern Ireland Assembly remained suspended and direct rule continued.

Collusion and political killings

In April, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, John Stevens, delivered his long-awaited report into collusion in Northern Ireland, only a short summary of which was published. Among other things, it confirmed widespread collusion between state agents and Loyalist paramilitaries, including state agents being involved in murder such as the killing of human rights lawyer Patrick Finucane in 1989. It also confirmed the existence of the British Army's secret intelligence unit known as the Force Research Unit which had actively colluded with Loyalist paramilitaries in targeting people, including Patrick Finucane, for assassination.

In May, one person was charged with the killing of Patrick Finucane. At the end of 2003, decisions were awaited on whether to instigate criminal proceedings arising from more than 50 individual files prepared by the Stevens team relating to serving and retired army personnel and police officers.

In July the European Court of Human Rights found that the UK authorities had violated Patrick Finucane's right to life, including by failing to provide a prompt and effective investigation into the allegations of security personnel collusion in his murder.

By the end of the year, the UK authorities had failed to publish the reports submitted to them in October by Justice Peter Cory, a retired Canadian Supreme Court judge, on alleged collusion by security forces in the killings of Patrick Finucane, Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill and Billy Wright.

In October, at an inquest into a number of cases, including that of Roseanne Mallon, where there were serious allegations of collusion between state forces and Loyalists in killings, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Ministry of Defence refused to comply with a document disclosure order issued by the Coroner.

In December Peter McBride's family was granted leave for a full judicial review of the Ministry of Defence's decision allowing the two Scots Guards convicted of his murder in 1992 to continue to serve in the army.

Abuses by non-state actors

There were 10 killings by members of armed groups during 2003, of which eight were attributed to Loyalists and two to Republican dissidents. The majority of the killings were reportedly carried out as a result of feuds among and within Loyalist paramilitary organizations.

• In November James McMahon, a 21-year-old Catholic, was attacked, reportedly by a Loyalist gang armed with baseball bats, as he walked home with friends. He died in hospital the following day.

• No armed group claimed responsibility for the killing in March of Keith Rogers. His death was reportedly attributed by the PSNI to a fall-out between two factions within the Irish Republican Army.

According to police figures, there were 203 shootings and assaults by Loyalist paramilitaries and 101 shootings and assaults by Republican paramilitaries. Many of the victims were children; some reports indicated that attacks on children had increased almost fivefold since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998.

• Two boys aged 14 and 15 were allegedly chained to a lamppost and covered in tar in April. Members of the Irish National Liberation Army – a dissident Republican group – were reportedly accused of this so-called "punishment".

Deaths in custody

• In June Christopher Alder's family announced that they were applying to the European Court of Human Rights following the outcome of a disciplinary inquiry which had cleared five police officers of responsibility for his death at Hull police station in 1998.

• In October an inquest jury returned a unanimous verdict of unlawful killing at the inquest into the death of Roger Sylvester in January 1999 after he was restrained by police officers. At the end of the year, a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service on whether to prosecute the officers involved was awaited.

Police shootings

In April the "open" verdict returned by an inquest jury in June 2002 at the conclusion of an inquest into the fatal police shooting of Harry Stanley was quashed, and a fresh inquest was ordered.

Prisons

Suicides in prisons were on the rise, totalling 94 by the end of the year. The Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales issued damning reports following her visits to a number of institutions. She raised concern about abuses against inmates, serious risk to their safety, and inhuman and degrading detention conditions.

The Chief Inspector of Prisons for Scotland continued to highlight inhuman and degrading detention conditions in some facilities, made worse by overcrowding.

In December settlements for compensation were reached in cases brought by victims who alleged that they had been subjected to ill-treatment, including torture such as rape, mock executions and brutal beatings while incarcerated at Wormwood Scrubs Prison in London in the mid to late 1990s.

• In October, in a landmark judgment, the House of Lords ruled that a public inquiry must be held into the circumstances of the death of Zahid Mubarek. He was killed by his cellmate in Feltham Young Offenders Institution in March 2000. Despite prior knowledge of the latter's violent behaviour and strong racial prejudices, the prison authorities had placed the two men in the same cell.

Violence against women

According to government statistics, two women each week on average were killed by a partner or former partner. Draft legislation was introduced to tackle this most hidden, yet pervasive of human rights abuses. AI urged that this legislation on domestic violence be supplemented by a broad, comprehensive and fully resourced national strategy to eliminate all forms of violence against women.

During the year allegations emerged that hundreds of Kenyan women had been raped by UK army personnel posted to Kenya for training. The allegations spanned a period of more than 35 years. More than half of the cases reportedly involved allegations of gang rape. Several rapes appeared to have been reported at the time to either or both the UK and Kenyan authorities who had failed to take effective action. An investigation by the UK Royal Military Police started in April and was ongoing at the end of the year.

Army deaths in disputed circumstances

There was continuing concern about deaths in disputed circumstances of army personnel, including under-18s, in non-combat situations in and around army barracks in the UK. There were allegations that some of these deaths may have involved unlawful killings, either intentional or as a result of negligence, through, for example, the misuse of lethal weapons; deaths during strenuous training exercises; and self-inflicted deaths, at times following bullying and other ill-treatment, including sexual harassment, by other soldiers and superior officers.

Serious questions were raised about the authorities' systematic failure to address a range of concerns.

Freedom of expression

In March AI expressed concern that the police use of special powers granted by "anti-terrorist" legislation to stop, search and seize in the context of peaceful anti-war demonstrations was hampering the lawful exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

At the end of the year, criminal proceedings were pending against Katharine Gun, a former government employee. She was being prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act 1989 for leaking an e-mail which reportedly exposed the US plan to eavesdrop on members of the UN Security Council during intensive negotiations in the run-up to the war on Iraq. She argued that her actions were necessary to prevent what she believed to be an unlawful war and to save the lives of UK servicemen and women and Iraqi civilians. AI reiterated its concern that the Act does not allow for a public interest defence.

Refugees and asylum-seekers

A significant number of asylum-seekers faced destitution because of Section 55 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. This withdraws welfare benefit entitlement from those who do not apply for asylum as soon as reasonably practicable after entering the UK.

AI country visits

AI delegates visited Kenya in June to investigate allegations of rape of Kenyan women by UK army personnel. An AI delegate observed judicial hearings pertaining to internment proceedings under the ATCSA and to the prosecution of Katharine Gun. An AI delegate visited Northern Ireland in June.