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| | lizzy | Feb 15, 5:50pm | Law lords to rule whether decision to invade Iraq warrants inquiry
Questions about the legality of Tony Blair's decision to join the US in invading Iraq will come under the spotlight before a rarely convened panel of nine law lords in Britain's highest court next week.
Rose Gentle and Beverley Clarke, the mothers of two 19-year-old soldiers killed in Iraq, will ask the judges to order the government to set up an independent inquiry into whether it took sufficient steps to satisfy itself that the war was legal before launching the invasion in 2003.
The fact that nine law lords, instead of the usual five, are set to hear the case - brought against the prime minister, the defence secretary and the attorney general - underlines its constitutional importance.
The law lords will be expected to look at the steps the government took in the run-up to the war to ensure that it was complying with international law.
Gentle and Clarke argue that they are entitled to an inquiry because article two of the European convention on human rights - incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act - guarantees the right to life.
They say this obliges the state to hold an investigation into whether the UK took reasonable steps to protect the soldiers' lives by not involving them in unlawful military operations.
The two mothers lost in the high court and in the court of appeal, where the judges ruled that the
European convention was concerned only with domestic, not international, rights, and that there were some areas, such as waging war, which were matters for the executive, not the courts.
A key question for the law lords during the three-day hearing, which starts next Monday, is the extent to which, in the light of the Human Rights Act, there are still "forbidden areas" where the courts will not venture.
"Whether the invasion of Iraq was lawful is the most important unanswered question of this generation," said Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers, the mothers' solicitor.
"The law lords will have to decide whether there are any questions of law that are out of bounds simply because, although potential or actual violations of human rights are involved, the context is a political one."
Fusilier Gordon Gentle, from Glasgow, had been in Iraq less than a week when he was killed by a roadside bomb in June 2004, after finishing his training in May.
A coroner ruled he died because a "chaotic" military supply chain had left his vehicle without a vital piece of equipment.
Trooper David Clarke, from Stafford, died under friendly fire west of Basra.
There was no separate inquest into his death because no mortal remains were found to be brought back to the UK.
Lawyers for the government are expected to argue that military action is not a matter for the courts, and that a decision to deploy troops in a foreign conflict is not capable of being a breach of its obligation to protect life.
guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/04/uk.humanrights4 [guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/04/uk.humanrights4]
So the govenment are arguing that the most fundemental law of the right to life does not apply with anything under the pretex of war or politics, and that a govenment is not obligated to protect life when deploying troops..so troops are merely disposable tools
and not human beings worthy of the rights to life and other rights of citizens? |
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| | | Grouchoo | Feb 16, 9:56pm | | Stale news - they cheated. It's a fact. |
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| | | lizzy | Feb 18, 9:21am | Monday February 4 2008 is not old news.
And some find it very inspiring that these common families make a stand and use the so called justice system we boast of fueled with their grief which unfortunately will never stale.
If they get through the Lords which are a bunch of ****** Europe may be easier they just cant give up, what they are doing is the only right and just thing and my prayers and encouragement for one goes with them.
February 12, 2008
Mothers of Iraq victims take case for inquiry to law lords
Lawyers at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had made it clear that a second resolution by the UN was required to authorise the invasion, and both the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Treasury Solicitor had raised concerns about the legality of the war, Rabinder Singh, QC, said. Mr Singh was appearing on behalf of two mothers whose sons died in Iraq. Rose Gentle, mother of Fusilier Gordon Gentle, 19, and Beverley Clarke, mother of Trooper David Clarke, also 19, took their case to the House of Lords after the Court of Appeal rejected their request for a public inquiry into Britain's part in the war.
Mr Singh said that the Government had failed to take "reasonable steps" to ensure that the invasion of Iraq was lawful. He said that this was crucial because members of the Armed Forces were in a unique position, obliged to obey the orders of the State.
timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3353373.ece [timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3353373.ece]
February 11th, 2008 6:19 pm
Iraq invasion a 'breach of duty'
BBC News
Military covenant
"There is what some people call a military covenant between the state and those who are literally prepared to put their lives at risk for the sake of their country."
The body of Trooper Clarke has never been found. A coroner said his death had been a "completely avoidable tragedy".
Mr Singh said it had become clear the overwhelming body of legal advice had been the invasion would not be lawful without a second resolution from the UN Security Council, in addition to Resolution 1441 on 8 November, 2002.
The mothers say the right to life, enshrined in Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, obliges the government to take reasonable steps to ensure its service personnel do not face the risk of death except in lawful military activities.
The parents are demanding to know why in the space of 10 days some 13 pages of "equivocal" advice from the then Attorney General Lord Goldsmith on 7 March 2003, became one page of unequivocal advice that an invasion would be legal.
The respondents to the appeal are Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Defence Secretary Des Browne and current Attorney General Baroness Scotland
michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php [michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php]
Pressure grows for Iraq war inquiryAndrew Sparrow, senior political correspondent guardian.co.uk, Tuesday February 12 2008
Lord Malloch-Brown suggested last month that an inquiry would come. Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty
Gordon Brown has been urged to use the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war next month to order a full inquiry into the lessons to be learned from the conflict.
The Fabian society, a Labour thinktank, said an inquiry "would ensure that a rounded assessment of the prewar diplomacy, the intelligence failures regarding Iraq's WMD programme, the conduct of the war itself, and the difficulties of postwar political and economic reconstruction could inform future policy".
In a letter to the prime minister, the Fabians' general secretary Sunder Katwala said Labour should be developing "a new progressive foreign policy agenda" in the run-up to the next general election.
"But our ability to pursue this debate within Britain and beyond, and to engage people in it, will depend on acknowledging and learning the lessons of Iraq, showing a clear commitment to building from these to create the new internationalist agenda we need for the future. A public inquiry into Iraq would be an important way to achieve this," Katwala said.
The law lords are currently considering a case bought by the mothers of two soldiers killed in Iraq who are arguing that there should be an inquiry into the war because of the government's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown told peers last month that "the time for an inquiry would come". But he would not be drawn on when that would be.
A Foreign Office spokesman said today the government was not in favour of having an inquiry while there were still "a significant number" of troops on active duty in Iraq.
But he also said that the prime minister had promised to make a statement to the Commons about troop deployment levels in Iraq in the spring.
guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/12/iraqinquiry [guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/feb/12/iraqinquiry] |
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