Whether Law Protects the Rights of Suspects or Not - Essay Example

Whether Law protects the rights of suspects or not - An Overview 1 Introduction Human rights Act 1998(1) gives the people a clear legal statement of their basic rights and fundamental freedoms. The key principles of the Act are that whatever possible that should be compatible with the conventional rights. The Human rights Act ensures that all the public authority should do every thing which is compatible with convetional rights unless an Act of Parliament makes that impossible. People are entitled to expect that public authority respect their conventional rights. One of main aims of the Act a shared understanding of what is fundamentally right and wrong will lead to people having more confidence in key state bodies and that this will encourage more openness and participation in Democracy and it ultimately leads greater rights and fairness in the society. To abide the above said aims and to appease the people who are hankering for unity and unanimity, the Act incorporates some provisions which extends some rights to the people to enjoy these unity .These provisions give the so called conventional rights to the people from the all area includes offenders, suspects etc. But the question is how far these rights enjoyable to these offenders particularly for suspects whose status is neither in the culprit's nor in the normal persons. The question is whether their rights are being protected aptly or not is a crucial question before the Law. Rights of the suspects under Human Rights Act Before we wrap up an assessment regarding the violation of suspect rights during the interview by the police we shall have a close look into those rights given to the suspects by the Act. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. A guide to the Human Rights Act 1998 Dept. for constitutional Affairs 2 As said above the suspects also enjoy the benefits of the different provisions which meant for the well being of the society. Article 2 of the Act provides everyone present in UK has the right of life and no one can de be deprived of their life, including those such as suspected terrorists or violent criminals. Moreover Article 3 gives the suspects a right to freedom from torturing, inhumane or degrading treatment. It further says that even in times of war or other public emergency, a person has the right not to be treated in these ways .It is a also applicable to the suspects. By sticking to the individual freedom of living own life ,the Act empowers the persons to live in personal privacy taking into the account of rights and freedom of the others and also limits on the extent to which a public authority can do thing which invade your privacy about your body without your permission. The point is well explained in Law Vs R (2) and it was held that the principal purpose of s 8 of the charter was to protect an accused's privacy interests against unreasonable intrusion by the state. In the instant case, the mere fact that the police recovered the stolen property was insufficient to support an inference that the owners voluntarily relinquished their expectation of privacy in the item and the Court confirmed that the officer's conduct constituted an unreasonable search. It followed that there was a violation of s 8 of the charter. Moreover referring the principle 21 of the Body of the principles on detention, which envisages the well being of the suspects who is in detention by prohibiting undue advantage of the situation of a detained or an imprisoned person for the purpose of compelling him to confess, to incriminate himself, Article 11 and 16 reminds the public authority to keep systematic review of interrogation rules, instruction methods and practices with a view to preventing torture and ill treatment. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Law v R (2002) 12 BHRC 716 3 From the above it can be noted that the Human rights Act envisages the same rights to the suspects as other normal people. Now we shall look into the crucial question of violation of suspect rights during the interview by the police. Suspects rights during the interview by the police One of the norms which is to be bound by the public authorities under the Act is they should have human rights principles in mind when they make decisions about people's rights including suspects. In recent years in the wake of terrorism the government extends more powers to police to apply to suspects' .But the same has been invited much criticism as it violates those conventional rights of suspects. Amnesty International(3) is unreservedly opposed to any extension of the maximum time limit for which people purportedly suspected of terrorism can be held without charge and improper interview. The organization considers that the current 14 days is already a very long period for people to held without charge. People are entitled to be charged promptly and tried within a reasonable time in proceedings which fully comply with internationally recognized fair trial standards, or to be released. By adhering to Article 5(2) -- Right to liberty and security - of Human rights Act 1998 Amnesty international reminds the contents of the provision as "Everyone who is arrested shall be informed promptly, in a language which he understands, of the reasons for his arrest and of any charge against him." In light of the above, Amnesty International was opposed to the 90 days' extension and is opposed to the current 28 days' extension that the government is seeking. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Amnesty International Reports on violations of suspects' human rights www.amnesty international .org 4 There exist the special police interrogation centers in Northern Ireland, which are used for the detention of suspects arrested under emergency legislation. Moreover there are many cases occurred where access to legal counsel denied. Interrogations are not audio-recorded and lawyers are not allowed to attend interrogations with their clients. Existence of Special Security Units (SSUs), a prison within a prison,in which "exceptional escape risk" Category A prisoners are held, constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and deny remand prisoners their right to a fair trial in violation of the United Kingdom's obligations under international treaties. The conditions within the SSUs have seriously impeded remand prisoners' right to a fair trial, both because they undermine the defendants' mental and physical capacity to prepare their defense and because they restrict the facilities for the preparation of the prisoners' defense through "closed" legal visits. A "closed" visit means that the defendant is separated from the lawyer by a glass barrier and communication is via a telephone or grill. (4) While scrutinize the above aspects it can be noted that even though the human rights act gives a wide scope to the conventional rights ,it has been subjected to violations to certain amount in the cases of suspects. It happens not only in the field of terrorism but also it happens in other cases also. In Brooks v Comr of Police of the Metropolis(5) ,which involves an occurrence of a notorious racist killing ,the court directed the police authority that it was desirable that police officers should treat victims and witnesses properly and with respect, to convert that ethical value into general legal duties of care on the police towards victims and witnesses would be going too far. Whilst focusing on ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Amnesty International Reports on violations of suspects' human rights www.amnesty international .org 5. Brooks v Comr of Police of the Metropolis 5 investigating crime, and the arrest of suspects, police officers would in practice be required to ensure that in every contact with a potential witness or a potential victim time and resources were deployed to avoid the risk of causing harm or offence. Such legal duties would tend to inhibit a robust approach in assessing a person as a possible suspect, witness or victim. From above discussion it is apparent that there can be some sort of infringement of conventional rights of the suspects while they are undergoing interview by the police. But it is to be remembered here that the police personals can not be questioned for their lawful act to haul out the truth either from the actual offenders or from the suspects, even though some one may raise issues on the basis of violation of conventional rights. In the light of this we shall examine the rights of the police and its legal validity. Rights of the police Most police powers and corresponding rights for suspects are to be found in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 - known as PACE - and in the accompanying Codes of Practice The Code of Practice empowers he police to stop and search any person, vehicle, and anything in or on the vehicle for certain items. However, before they stop and search they must have reasonable grounds for suspecting that they will find stolen goods; or an offensive weapon; or any article made or adapted for use in certain offences, for example a burglary or theft; or an article with a blade or point; or items which could damage or destroy property, for example spray paint cans. The police can also arrest somebody if they have reasonable grounds for suspecting him have committed or attempted to commit any offence, or if he is committing or attempting to commit any offence, but it is impractical or inappropriate to serve a summons. However, they can only do this if one of the following conditions applies:- 6 - they do not know, and cannot get suspects name - they think the suspects have given a false name - the suspects have not given a satisfactory address. - they think the suspects has given a false address and the arrest is necessary to prevent somebody causing physical injury to others, suffering physical injury, causing loss or damage to property, committing an offence against public decency, or causing an unlawful obstruction of the highway. So legally constituted police powers can be used under such suspicious circumstances. Apart from this, the Human rights Act itself enumerates some provisions for police for the lawful exercise of the rights and powers in the case of suspects' .Giving the due right to live their own life under Article 8 .the Act places limitations to this provision. The limitation clause of this Article says that this provision can be extended taking into the account the rights and freedom of the others .It means that the police can interfere in the light of national security, public safety, protection of economy, protection of health or morals or protection of rights and freedom of others. Moreover the Section 35 of the Police Reform Act 2002 empowers the police personal who detain the suspects, detention officer, to arrest, to warn, and also arrest for further offences disclosed in interview. In recent years, laws have been passed to give the police more powers in situations involving terror suspects. Crossing point of police rights and suspected rights In C plc v P (Secretary of State for the Home Office and another intervening (6) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. C plc v P (Secretary of State for the Home Office and another intervening [2006] EWHC 1226 (Ch) 7 it was held that the public's right under arts 2, 3 and 8 of the Convention to be protected from the effect of criminal activity when balanced against the respondent's right to domestic PSI, which would otherwise operate to prevent the court from directing that the offending material be passed to the police, required the court to modify the respondent's right so as to enable the material to be so transferred. i.e, the convention right should not be disturbed by giving more importance to the suspects rights. So it is required that the police rights to be mitigated with the suspects right so as to maintain the public rights mentioned in the Article 2,3 and 8 and also for lay down a balance point between both rights. Suspects' rights are determined by what powers the police have. These are laid out in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and the accompanying Codes of Practice, which explain how police powers should be exercised. If police powers have been abused, the evidence they gathered may not be admissible in court. Recently a British court held that procedures undertaken to restrain a suspected terrorist under the UK's Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) breached the suspect's human rights. The High Court judge declared that the control orders imposed on the suspect violated his right to a fair trial under the Human Rights Act. Reforms for the violations of suspects rights Recently the UK government entered into bilateral agreements, The Memoranda of Understanding, for the deportation of the suspects with the governments of the countries to which it plans to deport such people.. The UK government asserts that Memorandum of Understanding guarantees, by way of "diplomatic assurances", that people deported by the UK would not be tortured or ill-treated in the country to which they are sent.(7) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. UK Deportation of terror suspects 20 Oct. 2005 www.Algeria-watch.org 8 Besides this, Amnesty International put forwarded some guidelines of reforms in order to protect the rights of suspects interrogated under emergency legislation in Northern Ireland. One of the suggested reforms was that suspects must be given immediate access to legal advice and permitted to be interrogated in the presence of their lawyers. This assumption is well designed in the case of John Murray. In this case, the European Court of Human Rights held that John Murray was wrongfully denied access to a lawyer at Castlereagh interrogation centre in Northern Ireland. The denial violated his right to a fair hearing under Article 6 of the European Convention. Another reform to be introduced is to install the audio and video -recording in all interrogations. The government should also end its derogation of the relevant provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the European Convention and provide prompt judicial scrutiny of detentions. Another vital safeguard is the introduction of a system to investigate complaints of police ill-treatment which would ensure that allegations are promptly, thoroughly and independently and also to recommend the appointment of a Police Ombudsman. The duty of the Police Ombudsman would be to investigate complaints against the police by using his or her own staff of independent investigators. Conclusion Human rights Act 1998 extends its main aspects of conventional rights not only to police but also to suspects. But it is obvious that somewhere, sometimes these rights are subjected to some kind of infringements. This happens when the both parties crossing the limits of their rights. Initially government has not been much into this to tackle the frictions. But nowadays there are number of steps taken to safeguard the suspects' rights particularly during the interview of the police, sometimes maintaining the same rights or by extending the rights or by reducing the powers of the police. Whatever it is, the government is always looking forward not to curtail the people's right at any cost. ********************* References Books and Authors 1. A Guide to Human Rights Act 1998 Dept. for Constitutional affairs 3rd edn. 2. Cheney, Deborah Criminal Justice and Human Rights Act 1998 2nd edn. Publ.by Jordan Ltd. 2001 Statutes 3. Police and Criminal evidence Act 1984 4. Police Reforms Act 2002 Websites 5. www.amnestyinternational org. UN reports criticize emergency law practices in Northern Ireland, Reports on violation of suspects' human Rights. 6. www.Algeria-watch.org UK: Deportation of terror suspects Articles 7. Jurist legal news and research publ. by Bernard Hibbitts April 21 2006 Read More