A new bill plans to ignore conventions protecting both military personnel and civilians in overseas operations
A week ago, the government showed its brazen willingness to violate international law in relation to the EU withdrawal agreement. So it should be no surprise that it now wishes to ignore the UN convention against torture and the European convention on human rights (ECHR). Last week the villains were those wicked Europeans; today it is activist lawyers and human rights, which are said to hamper rather than inspire the military overseas. Last week, the not-so-hidden jibe was against Sir Keir Starmer as a “remainer lawyer”. This time no doubt, the prod is against the Labour leader as a former director of public prosecutions.
The overseas operations bill arrives in the House of Commons for its second reading on Wednesday. It severely restricts the ability to prosecute serious criminal wrongdoing by overseas personnel by installing a presumption against doing so after five years. It also requires the attorney general’s consent for any such prosecution. Anyone who has lived through the war on terror will know that we could reasonably face a scenario in which a victim of torture is detained in a legal black hole for far longer than it might take to pursue a crime against them. Further, the law officer who must consent to any prosecution may well have been the person responsible for authorising the operation now being impugned.
