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17 October 2009 / Julian Samiloff
Issue: 7282 / Categories: Features , EU , Human rights
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Violations abroad

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Strasbourg is likely to play a major role in the development of global human rights law, says Julian Samiloff

In Al-Skeini v Secretary of State for Defence [2007] UKHL 26, [2007] All ER (D) 106 (Jun) the House of Lords ruled that Iraqi civilians arrested and detained by British soldiers had the protection of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) and consequently the European Convention on Human Rights (the Convention). The appeal may be divided into two parts. The first part concerned the cases of Iraqis killed as a result of British action in the streets of Basra, while the second arose out of the treatment of Baha Mousa—an Iraqi who was beaten to death while being detained at a British military base in Basra.

For the government it was argued that that because UK forces did not have full control of Iraq, Iraq could not be thought of as being within UK jurisdiction for the purposes of HRA 1998 and therefore the writ of the Convention could not run in Iraq. The law

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