Mousa

The Baha Mousa Annual Memorial Lecture

"The UK's Abu Ghraib? The Use of Coercive Interrogation Techniques in Iraq"

Professor William Schabas

Was held at 7pm on Tuesday 30 June 2009 to a packed audience of over 150

At Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Northcliffe House, 28 Tudor Street, London , EC4Y 0AY

The following report was distributed to attendees and is available as a pdf file at the bottom of this page

British Forces in Iraq:

The Emerging Picture of Human Rights Violations and the Role of Judicial Review

Public Interest Lawyers 30 June 2009

7:00pm Introduction by Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers

7:15pm Keynote Address from Professor William Schabas: "The UK's Abu Ghraib? The Use of Coercive Interrogation Techniques in Iraq" Professor William Schabas is director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland in Galway, he is author of numerous texts on international human rights law and in May 2002 was appointed to serve on Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

8:15pm Question and Answers

8:45pm Drinks Reception

Who was Baha Mousa?

Baha Mousa was an Iraqi civilian who died after 36 hours in British custody in Iraq. Baha Mousa was hooded and deprived of sleep and food. A post mortem examination found that he had suffered at least 96 injuries before death. In a landmark ruling in the case of Al Skeini the House of Lords held that the Secretary of State for Defence acted in contravention of the Human Rights Act in denying a public inquiry into his death and that there was jurisdiction under Article 1 of the European Convention of Human Rights at the place of detention. The Government announced a public inquiry in May 2008 which is due to start this summer http://www.bahamousainquiry.org/. We think it fitting that an annual lecture is held in his memory so that his suffering is not forgotten.