E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

UK : High Court rules under-equipped troops violates 'human rights'
The Defence Secretary, Des Browne, may appeal a High Court ruling that sending troops on patrol or into battle in Iraq and Afghanistan without adequate equipment could breach their human rights. The decision could open the way for the families of dead soldiers to sue the Ministry of Defence.
Last thing the Brits need is this nonsense. Of course the troops needs proper kit, but this isn't how you go about it.
The decision was a landmark legal defeat for the MoD, which has previously argued that the Human Rights Act does not apply to soldiers on active service outside their bases.

But Mr Justice Collins, sitting at the High Court in London, said that British servicemen and women were entitled to a measure of legal protection of their human rights "wherever they may be". He said: "There is a degree of artificiality in saying that a soldier is protected in a base or in a military hospital but is not protected if he steps outside that base.

"It is difficult to see the rationale behind that so far as his protection is concerned."

In a further blow to Mr Browne the judge also rejected his attempt to gag coroners in military inquests. Mr Browne wanted to ban coroners from using phrases such as "serious failure" when recording verdicts on soldiers who have died on active service.

Lawyers for the Defence Secretary had claimed the phrase was tantamount to blaming the Government for the deaths of the servicemen and could be seen as deciding civil liability if the soldiers' families sued for compensation.

The judge also said that soldiers' families should be entitled to legal aid and as full access as possible to military documents that were put before inquest hearings. He made his comments at the end of a test case involving the death of Private Jason Smith, 32, who died of heatstroke in Iraq.

Pte Smith, from Roxburghshire, became ill in temperatures of 60C (140F) in August 2003 at the Al Amara stadium, southern Iraq.

The Territorial Army recruit was attached to the 1st Battalion the King's Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB). The Ministry of Defence was granted permission to appeal against the ruling.

Solicitor Jocelyn Cockburn, who represents Pte Smith's mother Catherine Smith, said: "This judgment means that British soldiers sent abroad have the same human rights as any other British citizens and they must be properly equipped when sent into battle.

"This is not a threat to national security. The result should be improved military procedures and a better war fighting force."

She said parameters had now been set out for how inquests into deaths of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan should be held in future. It meant soldiers' families would be given better access to military documents and names could no longer be deleted from documents in a wholesale manner, she said.

Liberal Democrat defence spokesman Nick Harvey also supported the verdict, saying: "This shattering ruling for Des Browne will hopefully at last wake the Government up to equipment shortages on the frontline which threaten the lives of our troops."
Posted by: mrp 2008-04-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=236540