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Top judge backs Human Rights Act | Top judge backs Human Rights Act |
(20 minutes later) | |
The Human Rights Act is a vital part of the fight against terrorism and should be strongly supported, the Lord Chief Justice has warned. | |
Resentment and support for terrorism will grow, if immigrants feel their human rights are not being respected, Lord Phillips said in a speech. | |
Ministers have warned that it may have to be re-examined, if it proves to have hampered the fight against terrorism. | Ministers have warned that it may have to be re-examined, if it proves to have hampered the fight against terrorism. |
Some measures have been scrapped after being found to break human rights laws. | Some measures have been scrapped after being found to break human rights laws. |
Control orders had to be brought in to contain foreign terror suspects after the Law Lords ruled detention without trial was illegal under the Act. | Control orders had to be brought in to contain foreign terror suspects after the Law Lords ruled detention without trial was illegal under the Act. |
Is there an alternative solution to the imposition of restrictions on liberty based on mere suspicion and on evidence that the suspect is not permitted to see? Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips | Is there an alternative solution to the imposition of restrictions on liberty based on mere suspicion and on evidence that the suspect is not permitted to see? Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips |
Lord Phillips's speech acknowledged that the Act has limited action that would otherwise have been "the response to the outbreak of global terrorism that we have seen over the last decade". | |
But he said: "It is essential that [immigrants] and their children and grandchildren should be confident that their adopted country treats them without discrimination and with due respect for their human rights. | |
"If they feel that they are not being fairly treated, their consequent resentment will inevitably result in the growth of those who, actively or passively, are prepared to support the terrorists who are bent on destroying the fabric of our society". | "If they feel that they are not being fairly treated, their consequent resentment will inevitably result in the growth of those who, actively or passively, are prepared to support the terrorists who are bent on destroying the fabric of our society". |
He denied any "strife" between ministers and judges over anti-terrorism laws. | |
Control orders | Control orders |
But Lord Phillips also questioned whether there is an alternative to control orders - where suspects movements are restricted based on evidence they are not allowed to see. | |
The order are used when there is not enough evidence for a criminal prosecution - sometimes evidence will have been collected by bugging the suspect and is therefore inadmissible. | |
Lord Phillips raises doubts about the government's refusal to use intercept evidence in court. | |
"There are many who believe that this blanket embargo [on telephone intercepts] cannot be justified," he will say. | |
There has been repeated criticism of the way in which the Act has been interpreted in the courts. | |
The courts ruled nine Afghan men who hijacked a plane at Stansted could not be sent back to their own country under human rights laws, because their lives would be at risk - something denounced at the time by prime minister Tony Blair as "abuse of common sense". | |
But the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, said in September the government was "unashamed" of the Human Rights Act. | |
The Department of Constitutional Affairs is to publish two new guides to interpreting it. |