Amnesty International, Amnesty International Report 1995 - United Kingdom, 1 January 1995, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9ff0.html [accessed 3 June 2023]
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Police officers charged with misconduct in connection with miscarriages of justice were acquitted. Reports on interrogation centres in Northern Ireland urged the introduction of further safeguards. Allegations of ill-treatment of deportees were investigated; three police officers were charged in connection with the death of Joy Gardner in 1993. The inadequacy of inquests was highlighted in some cases of disputed killings. Armed political groups carried out deliberate and arbitrary killings until cease-fires were declared. On 1 September the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a predominantly Catholic Republican armed group, declared a cessation of its "military operations". Republican armed groups seek unification of Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland. On 14 October the Combined Loyalist Military Command declared a cessation of "all operation hostilities" by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Loyalist armed groups, predominantly Protestant, seek to maintain Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. Armed groups claimed responsibility for killing 60 people in Northern Ireland in 1994. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act became law in November. Under it, courts can draw adverse inferences against defendants remaining silent during interrogation and at trial in England and Wales; similar legislation already operates in Northern Ireland. The law also gives police new powers to stop and search and creates criminal sanctions against protesters, travellers and others. In February the government amended legislation on the age of consent for homosexual acts in private, lowering the age from 21 to 18. The age of consent for heterosexual acts remains 16. In June, in the Murray v. UK case, the European Commission of Human Rights concluded that the applicant's rights to a fair trial and to legal assistance had been violated by restrictions on his access to a lawyer. It rejected the argument that adverse inferences drawn against the accused for remaining silent during interrogation and at trial violated his right to a fair trial. The Commission referred the case to the European Court of Human Rights. The trial of seven people charged with a bomb attack in the Ballymurphy area of Belfast (see Amnesty International Report 1994) finished in November. Four of the defendants were acquitted during the proceedings after the judge ruled that their confessions were inadmissible. The judgment on three defendants had not been delivered by the end of the year. An Amnesty International delegate attended part of the proceedings. Four police officers, charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice in connection with the conviction in 1986 of four UDR soldiers for murder, were acquitted in September. The judge ruled that although interview notes had been rewritten, this did not necessarily mean any crime had been committed. In April the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal quashed the conviction of Paul Hill for the murder of a police officer in 1974. A lawyer attended the proceedings on behalf of Amnesty International. Paul Hill had also had his conviction for the 1975 IRA pub bombings in Guildford and Woolwich, as one of the "Guildford Four", quashed in 1989. In a report published in June Sir John May concluded that the wrongful convictions of the "Guildford Four" were due to individual failings by police officers, prosecutors and lawyers and "not due to any specific weakness or inherent fault in the criminal justice system" (see Amnesty International Reports 1990 to 1994). Two senior police officers, charged in connection with the prosecutions of the "Tottenham Three", were acquitted in July. They were charged with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after scientific analysis showed that interview notes had been altered (see Amnesty International Report 1992). The report of an ad hoc visit to Northern Ireland in July 1993 of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture was published in November. It concluded that detainees held under emergency legislation ran a significant risk of psychological ill-treatment and, on occasion, of physical ill-treatment. It emphasized the need for further safeguards, including immediate access to a solicitor, legal assistance during interrogation, and the possible electronic recording of interrogations. In January the Independent Commissioner for the Holding Centres, Sir Louis Blom-Cooper, published his first annual report on police interrogation centres in Northern Ireland. The report was critical of some conditions at Castlereagh. It concluded that "public confidence can be secured only if there is in place a method of accountability" for the conduct of detectives carrying out interrogations. The report also proposed the creation of a legal advice unit at Castlereagh; this proposal was criticized by the Law Society and human rights organizations as undermining the detainees' right of access to a lawyer of their own choice. In May the Independent Assessor of Military Complaints, David Hewitt, published his first annual report. He reviews the procedures for non-criminal complaints by members of the public in Northern Ireland. The report stressed the need to address the "widespread perception that the Army is failing to provide reasonable satisfaction to genuine complainants". A total of 210 formal non-criminal complaints, including harassment and abuse, had been made during 1993; 16 of these were substantiated, in eight of which disciplinary action was taken. Charges of manslaughter were brought in April against three police officers from the deportation squad of the London Metropolitan Police in connection with the death of Joy Gardner in August 1993; they had not been tried by the end of 1994. Joy Gardner died after being gagged and strapped into a body-belt (see Amnesty International Report 1994). After her death a joint review was carried out by the Home Office and the police into deportation procedures involving the police. The results, which were released in January, included the decision to ban mouth gags as a form of restraint. Internal Home Office investigations into allegations of ill-treatment by private security guards of other deportees found no evidence of excessive use of force. Allegations were made that police officers and private security guards physically ill-treated people protesting against the building of roads; however, very few charges for the ill-treatment were brought. Two reports by Chief Constable John Stevens into alleged collusion between the security forces and Loyalist paramilitaries (see previous Amnesty International Reports) were forwarded to the Northern Ireland Director of Public Prosecutions in March and October, but had not been made public by the end of the year. Allegations about the lack of equal protection by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) of the Catholic community were highlighted by the killing of Paul Thompson in April. He was shot dead by UDA gunmen who had climbed through the "peaceline fence" in West Belfast. Eight hours earlier a resident had informed both police and government authorities that the fence had been broken. In January the RUC officer charged with the murder of 19-year-old student Kevin McGovern in 1991 was acquitted (see Amnesty International Report 1992). The acquittal highlighted the need for a review of legislation governing the use of lethal force by the security forces. The trial of two soldiers charged with the murder of Peter McBride in 1992 took place in June; no verdict had been given by the end of the year. The inquests into the killings of six people, shot dead in 1982 by a special anti-terrorist squad of the ruc, were closed in September by the coroner who stated that his aim in holding the inquests was "no longer achievable". The RUC and the government, through the issuing of Public Interest Immunity Certificates, blocked disclosure to the inquest of the report of the Stalker/Sampson inquiry (see previous Amnesty International Reports). The inquest in October into the deaths of John McNeill, Edward Hale and Peter Thompson was unable to examine the full circumstances of the killings by undercover soldiers in 1990 (see Amnesty International Report 1991) because of restrictions placed on inquest procedures. An Amnesty International delegate observed the proceedings. The European Commission of Human Rights issued its decision in March in the case of McCann, Farrell, and Savage v. UK (the three people killed by undercover soldiers in Gibraltar in 1988 see Amnesty International Report 1989). The Commission concluded that the use of force had been no more than "absolutely necessary". The Commission referred the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Karamjit Singh Chahal's petition to seek leave to appeal against his deportation order was rejected by the Appeal Committee of the House of Lords in March (see Amnesty International Report 1992). His petition to the European Commission of Human Rights was declared admissible in September. Armed political groups carried out deliberate and arbitrary killings until cease-fires were declared. Loyalist armed groups claimed responsibility for killing 36 people, of whom 20 were killed by the UVF and 11 by the UDA. In June, six people were killed and five others injured when a UVF gunman sprayed a bar, frequented by Catholics, with gunfire. Kathleen O'Hagan, a Catholic and mother of five, was killed by UVF gunmen in her home in August; she was pregnant. Sixty-eight men were shot in the limbs and 38 were reported to have been beaten by Loyalist groups as "punishment". The IRA claimed responsibility for killing 18 people, of whom seven were members of the security forces and 11 were civilians. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) claimed responsibility for killing six people. A police station cleaner, Fred Anthony, was killed when an IRA bomb exploded under his car in May. His wife and two children were injured. Two leading Loyalists, Colin Craig and Ray Smallwoods, were shot dead by the INLA and IRA respectively in June and July. Members of the IRA killed post office worker Frank Kerr during a robbery in November; the IRA leadership stated it had not sanctioned the operation. Republican groups also carried out 32 beatings and shot 54 men in the limbs as "punishment". Amnesty International urged the government not to adopt new legislation curtailing the right of silence and to repeal similar legislation already operating in Northern Ireland. The organization was also concerned about provisions in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. Amnesty International expressed concern about the government's failure to refer the life imprisonment of three men charged with the murder of two army corporals (see Amnesty International Report 1994) to a judicial authority for review. In February Amnesty International published a report called United Kingdom: Political Killings in Northern Ireland, which examined patterns of killings falling within the organization's mandate. These included killings by members of the security forces, killings by paramilitary forces carried out with the acquiescence, collusion or complicity of the security forces, and deliberate and arbitrary killings by armed political groups. Amnesty International reiterated its long-standing concerns about the ineffectiveness of inquests dealing with disputed killings by the security forces, as well as the government's intervention in particular cases to block the disclosure of crucial evidence. The organization urged the government and the RUC to release the Stalker/Sampson report to the McKerr, Toman and Burns inquest. The government replied that Public Interest Immunity Certificates were issued because it was "sometimes necessary to safeguard information which would otherwise be useful to terrorists". Amnesty International submitted written comments to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of McCann, Farrell and Savage v. UK. The organization urged the Court to declare that the intentionally lethal use of firearms could only be compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights when its use was strictly unavoidable in order to protect life. In July Amnesty International published a report, United Kingdom: Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during forcible deportation, which detailed allegations by four deportees of ill-treatment by police officers and private security guards. Unauthorized equipment was used to restrain deportees, including mouth gags, adhesive tape and plastic straps. The organization urged the government to open impartial investigations into the allegations. It also urged the government to set up an independent inquiry into the accountability of all agencies involved in the deportation process and to create a statutory authority to regulate the Immigration Service and private security firms. The report was submitted to the Home Affairs Select Committee inquiry into the private security industry. The Prime Minister, John Major, wrote to Amnesty International in August rejecting the need for an independent statutory authority, or an independent inquiry. Amnesty International urged that the protection of human rights be placed centrally on the agenda in the search for a political settlement in the context of the cease-fires in Northern Ireland.
