Britain could ditch human rights laws for troops in battle

BRITAIN could opt out of human rights laws when sending troops into battle, the Defence Secretary has suggested.

experts fear a growing litigation culture means soldiers who shoot enemies in the heat of battle may find themselves in breach of human rights law.

More than 2,000 compensation claims and judicial reviews have been lodged following the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Taxpayers are facing a £150million bill to defend British soldiers who are being sued by enemy fighters – including suspected Taliban and bomb-makers – for breaching ‘human rights’.

Michael Fallon said the Government was stepping up the fight against ‘bogus legal claims’ that prevent troops operating effectively in war zones.

One option is for the UK to ‘derogate’ – or temporarily depart from – the european Convention of human Rights (eChR) while engaged in military action.

Senior army officers argue the convention, brought into effect in 1953, is misused in combat situations as many of its principles relate to abuses during peacetime.

Countries can suspend some obligations at times of war or national emergency ‘threatening the life of the nation’. Britain did so briefly after 9/11 to detain foreign terror suspects and countries including France, Portugal, Spain and the Czech Republic, have done so to protect troops from legal action.

Mr Fallon said yesterday that suspending the eChR while at war is one of ‘a number of ways of better protecting our troops from these kind of bogus claims’.

he told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC1: ‘We have a manifesto commitment to… strengthen our defences against some of these legal claims which turn out to be completely bogus, cost us a lot of money, comes out of the defence budget and hinders the operational effectiveness of our troops out in very dangerous places like Afghanistan, and I’ll be putting proposals to my colleagues soon as to how we implement that manifesto commitment.’

Other options include a time limit on legal action to prevent claims years after incidents, and a bar on legal aid for claimants living outside the UK.

Since 2003, the Ministry of Defence has spent £100million on Iraq-related investigations and compensation, with £44million more earmarked for ongoing claims from Iraqis up to 2019.

The most expensive has been the

‘Hinders effectiveness’

£31million Al-Sweady public inquiry, lasting five years, which exonerated British troops of claims they went on a torture and killing spree following a 2004 battle in southern Iraq.

The inquiry concluded some Iraqis were mistreated but allegations of murder were based on ‘deliberate lies’.

So far 1,200 claims for compensation against the MoD and 500 judicial review applications have been lodged in relation to alleged abuse, unlawful detention and unlawful killing in Iraq. A test case going to the Supreme Court could open the doors to 800 more compensation cases from Afghanistan.

Many Tory MPs want Britain to withdraw from the convention altogether and replace it with a British Bill of Rights, which could include special protection for the Armed Forces.

The British Bill of Rights could be made law as soon as summer, but it is likely to encounter opposition in the house of Lords and the UK may still be subject to european laws.

The threat of clashes with Russia should not stop Britain carrying out air strikes in Syria, Michael Fallon said yesterday. he reiterated the Government’s commitment to a Commons vote on extending military action against Islamic State. his comments came as Russia prepares more intensive Syrian air strikes and support for president Bashar al-Assad as he attempts to retake rebel-held Aleppo. There were suggestions yesterday that Vladimir Putin is prepared to extend Russian action into Iraq.

IN the latest example of the crippling effect of insidious human rights laws, it emerges 2,000 compensation claims and judicial review cases have been prepared against British soldiers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bill to the taxpayer for defending these often spurious claims is an estimated £150million. Alarmingly, experts fear that soldiers may soon be under such pressure from the lawyers that they might be unable to pull the trigger in the heat of battle.

Yesterday, ministers were said to be planning a fight back against the ambulance- chasing lawyers and their opportunistic clients, by disapplying human rights laws in conflicts abroad.

A decade after the Tories first promised to scrap Labour’s Human Rights Act, this cannot come a moment too soon.