Peirce

Gareth Peirce on the destruction of internationally protected rights: 'Everything we believed in as lawyers has been distorted and manipulated'

Gareth Peirce, the criminal defence lawyer renowned for her championship of human rights, spoke about the state of internationally protected rights at this month's Solicitors' International Human Rights Group Speaker meeting.

Ms Peirce described how through her work as a criminal defence lawyer she has witnessed repeated human rights infringements and the distortion of due legal process by the UK government since the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act was passed in 2001 and other anti-terrorism legislation each year since then. Ms Peirce represented the foreign nationals detained under s23 of that Act, which was eventually declared incompatible with Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights by the House of Lords in 2004. Although the House of Lords agreed that the UK was in a state of emergency, with Lord Hoffman notably dissenting, nevertheless it was held that the s23 detentions went beyond the exigencies of the situation. Yet Ms Peirce felt this victory was a hollow one: the decision had little effect on the government's determination to evade their international human rights obligations. Ms Peirce's experiences pursuing justice for the Belmarsh detainees, and also for the British citizens detained in Guantanamo Bay, have led her to the conclusion that the UK and US governments have consistently evaded the safeguards that protect our fundamental rights. In effect, these rights are being destroyed.

The Belmarsh detainees were held for three years without ever being informed of the specific accusations against them, reversing a fundamental principle in criminal law. Moreover, the detainees were never questioned. The obsession with secrecy surrounding the evidence against terror suspects means that this evidence is only heard in closed sessions, which Ms Peirce described as appalling. Special advocates at these sessions are not effective in protecting the suspect's rights. The whole procedure is unfair, with no elements of due process. These are just a few examples of how the basic propositions of law have been distorted and manipulated by the government. Everything we believed in as lawyers, Ms Peirce commented, has been destroyed.

Ms Peirce then spoke about the implications of this situation for internationally protected rights. Victories such as the Belmarsh decision and the release of the British nationals detained in Guantanamo Bay might suggest the possibility of the law acting as an effective safeguard for these rights. Sadly, the overall situation is worsening; we are on a downward path. The UK government has looked for ways to avoid the consequences of legal victories rather than comply with the law. Although the House of Lords ruled that evidence obtained from torture was inadmissible, nevertheless the UK has repeatedly condoned or been complicit in torture in other ways. We have allowed extraordinary rendition to Guantanamo Bay in full knowledge of the degrading treatment that will be suffered there, breaching our obligations under Article 3 of the ECHR. We have also deported people to countries where they are likely to face torture and denied any obligation towards refugees, thus utterly avoiding our responsibility to ensure torture is prohibited world-wide.

Concluding her speech, Ms Peirce spoke about what lawyers can do to try and uphold the rights which are currently under threat. Lawyers will need to fight their cases in new ways, taking the battle to politicians and the media. They need to make MPs and sub-committees aware of the human rights infringements and the absence of due process that they have witnessed. They also need to make the media and the public aware. Public outcry can have a positive effect, as shown by the public anger and shock at the images of the British Guantanamo Bay detainees which provoked enough political will to secure their release. There is the greatest need, then, for lawyers to make their voices heard, to capture public attention and make people care.