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Amnesty International Report 2017/18

appropriate parliamentary scrutiny, placing 

current rights and equality laws at risk.

JUSTICE SYSTEM

In January, the government committed itself 

to completing the post-implementation review 

of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment 

of Offenders Act 2012, by April 2018. Legal 

aid in civil cases had dropped drastically 

since the Act was introduced. In October, an 

internal post-legislative review memorandum 

was published and plans for completion of 

the review proper were announced for 

mid-2018.

In July, Lady Hale was appointed the first 

woman president of the Supreme Court. 

There was only one other woman Justice at 

the Court, and just 28% of all court judges 

were women. Representation of ethnic 

minorities among judges also remained a 

concern; only 7% declared to be a member 

of an ethnic minority.

COUNTER-TERROR AND SECURITY

Between March and June, 41 people were 

killed, including the attackers, and many 

others injured in attacks in London, the 

capital, and Manchester. In June, the 

government announced that it would review 

its counter-terrorism strategy and commission 

an independent “assurance” of the internal 

reviews conducted by the Security Service 

(MI5) and the police around the attacks. In 

June, plans for a “Commission for Countering 

Extremism” were announced.

In May, the UN Special Rapporteur on the 

rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of 

association issued a report warning that the 

government’s approach to “non-violent 

extremism” risked violating both freedoms.

In October, the government announced its 

intention to propose amendments to Section 

58 of the Terrorism Act 2000 regarding the 

collection, recording or possession of 

information likely to be useful to a person 

committing or preparing an act of terrorism. 

The proposals sought to expand the scope of 

the offence to include repeated viewing or 

streaming of online material, and making 

such viewing punishable by up to 15 years’ 

imprisonment. Similar uplifts to discretionary 

sentences were also proposed to the offence 

of eliciting information about the armed 

forces.

In September, Muhammed Rabbani, 

Director of the advocacy group CAGE, was 

convicted of “wilfully obstructing or seeking 

to frustrate an examination or search” under 

Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He 

had refused to disclose the passwords for his 

laptop and phone to police at Heathrow 

Airport in London. By June, police had 

stopped 17,501 people under Schedule 7 

powers, which did not require any suspicion 

of wrongdoing.

TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT

TORTURE IN NORTHERN IRELAND

The 2014 request by the Irish government to 

review the 1978 judgment in Ireland v. UK, 

on torture techniques used in internment in 

Northern Ireland in 1971-1972, remained 

pending before the European Court of 

Human Rights (ECtHR). In October, the High 

Court in Northern Ireland quashed a decision 

by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to 

end preliminary inquiries into torture of the 

14 “Hooded Men”, who were abused while in 

detention in Northern Ireland by the British 

army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary in 

1971.

RENDITION

In January, the Supreme Court issued a 

judgment in the joined appeals in Belhaj and 

Others v. Jack Straw and 

Others and Rahmatullah v. Ministry of 

Defence and Another. It ruled that the 

government could not rely on the legal 

doctrines of “sovereign immunity” and 

“foreign act of state” to escape civil claims in 

the two cases alleging UK involvement in 

human rights violations by foreign 

governments. The first case concerned 

allegations by former Libyan opposition 

leader Abdul-Hakim Belhaj and his wife 

Fatima Boudchar that they had been 

subjected to rendition, torture and other ill-

treatment in 2004 by the US and Libyan 

governments, with the knowledge and co-

operation of UK officials. The second case 

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was brought by Yunus Rahmatullah, detained 

by UK forces in Iraq in 2004 before being 

handed over to US forces and allegedly 

tortured and imprisoned without charge for 

over 10 years.

ARMED FORCES

Allegations of war crimes committed by UK 

armed forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2008 

remained under preliminary examination by 

the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC. On 3 

December, the Office declared that there was 

a reasonable basis to believe that members 

of the UK armed forces committed war 

crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court 

against persons in their custody. An 

admissibility assessment was ongoing.

In April, the House of Commons Defence 

Select Committee issued a report in which it 

proposed to introduce a Statute of Limitations 

with regard to alleged crimes committed by 

British soldiers and other security forces 

personnel in Northern Ireland before 1998.

SURVEILLANCE

Proceedings brought by Amnesty 

International and other applicants were 

pending before the ECtHR regarding the 

legality of the pre-Investigatory Powers Act, 

mass surveillance regime and intelligence 

sharing practices. The judgment was pending 

at the end of the year.

NORTHERN IRELAND – LEGACY ISSUES

In January, the Historic Institutional Abuse 

Inquiry published findings from the 

investigation into 22 residential children’s 

institutions in Northern Ireland, covering the 

period from 1922 to 1995. It found 

widespread and systemic failings by the UK 

and institutions in their duties towards the 

children in their care. The government had 

not implemented any of the 

recommendations at the end of the year.

The government continued to refuse 

funding to implement plans by the Lord Chief 

Justice of Northern Ireland to address the 

backlog of “legacy” coroners’ inquests.

The government continued to refuse to 

establish an independent public inquiry into 

the 1989 killing of Patrick Finucane, despite 

having acknowledged previously that there 

had been “collusion” in the case.

SEXUAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS

Abortion remained criminalized in Northern 

Ireland in almost every circumstance. 

Abortion was permitted only where the life or 

health of the woman or girl was at risk. 

Women faced criminal prosecution for taking 

WHO-approved medication to induce 

abortions. To access abortions, 724 women 

from Northern Ireland travelled to England 

and Wales in 2016.

In June, in the case of a 15-year-old girl 

who travelled to England for an abortion, and 

her mother, the Supreme Court ruled that 

women resident in Northern Ireland were not 

entitled to free abortions on the National 

Health Service. In September, the threat of 

prosecution against medical professionals in 

Northern Ireland who made abortion referrals 

to Great Britain was lifted.

The UK Supreme Court case challenging 

Northern Ireland’s abortion law was ongoing. 

The case considered whether the law 

breached women’s rights by prohibiting 

abortions in cases of rape or incest and 

serious/fatal foetal impairment. A ruling was 

expected in early 2018.

Arrangements for women resident in 

Northern Ireland to access free abortion 

services in England and Scotland were 

confirmed in October and November 

respectively.

DISCRIMINATION

In January, the Scottish government set up 

an independent review into hate crime laws 

in Scotland.

Northern Ireland remained the only part of 

the UK to deny same-sex couples the right to 

marriage. In July, thousands of people took 

part in a march in the city of Belfast calling 

for marriage equality.

In September, an independent review into 

ethnic minority individuals in the criminal 

justice system in England and Wales was 

published. It found that ethnic minorities 

were disproportionately represented in 

prisons, with 25% of prisoners (despite 

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