Recently in Human Rights Category

A senior Home Office minister has called for the current UK laws on female genital mutilation (FGM) to be better enforced in a bid to protect women from being subjected to the horrific cultural practice, reports The London Evening Standard.

The Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 is a decade old and yet ten years on the Government shamefully confesses that as of yet there have been no charges brought under its provisions.

Lord Taylor of Holbeach told Parliament this week that Government remained committed to the enforcement of the Act and called for a new campaign to convince those who engage in the practice to stop.

The drawn-out saga to deport Abu Qatada took another twist this week as the Court of Appeal refused the Government's latest attempts to send him back to Jordan, prompting newspapers to report that the Government is considering the UK's future involvement in the European Convention of Human Rights, reports The Financial Times.

The UK Government yesterday announced that it has signed a treaty with Jordan that contains assurances that prosecutions brought within the Middle Eastern state would not use evidence obtained by torture.

In an address to the House of Commons, Home Secretary Theresa May announced the signing of the agreement as the latest ploy by the Government to deport Mr Qatada, something that it has failed to do for more than a decade.

The European Court of Human Rights has courted controversy by awarding a convicted child rapist damages for unlawful deprivation of liberty, reports Sky News.

Mustafa Abdi, from Somalia, arrived in the country in 1995 claiming asylum but his application was refused. He subsequently raped and indecently assaulted a child here in the UK and was sentenced in 1998 to eight years in prison.

The then Home Secretary David Blunkett attempted on several occasions to deport Mr Abdi, failing every time. It is thought he has received tens of thousands of pounds in legal aid to fight his deportation.

Two British citizens accused of drug offences in Dubai have been denied a visit by the charity Reprieve, who were hoping to meet with them to discuss their legal cases, reports the BBC.

Reprieve hoped to visit three Britons jailed in Dubai on drug charges last August. However, authorities in Dubai only allowed them to visit the third defendant, Suneet Jeerh, refusing them access to Grant Cameron and Karl Williams who were also arrested on the same charges.

All three men deny the charges levied against them and have claimed that the police have tortured them using electric shocks and beatings, although this account of events is being challenged.

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, a religious group of 'Pastafarians' who believe that a pasta-based creator referred to as 'His Noodliness' was responsible for the earth and its inhabitants, is threatening to sue the Polish Government for failing to recognise it as a religion, reports The Daily Telegraph.

A statement on the website of the Polish division of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster claimed that all faiths faced disbelief at first and threatened to take the Polish Government to the European Court of Human Rights for its failure to recognise it as a genuine faith.

The Church claims to have existed in some form or another for centuries, but only came into the public eye in recent years. Pastafarians show their commitment to their religion by wearing a 'Holy Colander' on their heads, something that has caused problems with driving licence applications.

The Conservatives, reeling from their election drubbing in Eastleigh, make a lurch to the right by announcing a plan to remove the UK from the European Court of Human Rights, reports the BBC.

Fresh from finishing third in the Eastleigh bi-election behind the Liberal Democrats and the UK Independence Party (UKIP), the Conservatives have announced plans to pull Britain out of the European Court of Human Rights.

Theresa May had previously strongly hinted that the Tories were losing patience with the ECHR, established in 1959 to enforce the European Convention on Human Rights. The UK became a signatory to the Convention in November 1950.

A pensioner who was held in a psychiatric care home against her will after her local council sought a court order to keep her there has won a legal case after the council admitted their actions had violated her human rights.

The 69-year-old pensioner was diagnosed with dementia in 2011, a diagnosis that she strongly contested. She was subsequently detained under the Mental Health Act in a secure psychiatric home.

After her initial six-month detention order was due to expire, Knowsley Council in Merseyside submitted an application to have her detained further, without allowing her the opportunity to put a case forward on the basis that her condition had improved.

A 17-year-old boy from Northern Ireland is challenging a legal ruling that lifted protection of the anonymity normally afforded to juvenile offenders.

The protection of his identity was removed last July by a Crown Court judge, but an injunction was immediately secured preventing disclosure of his name until an appeal could be heard.

The 17-year-old, who was 15 at the time of the incident, attacked a 76-year-old woman in her home in Newtownards, County Down, in March 2011. He gained entry to her home through the front door, and then forced the woman to her bedroom where the attack took place.

Legal advisers to the Government are planning to appeal a Court of Appeal decision that requirements for people to disclose previous criminal convictions are a breach of their human right to privacy.

The case in question concerned a 21-year-old man known only as T, who was refused a job at the local football club after previous police warnings were revealed on his Enhanced Criminal Records Certificate (ECRC).

The convictions also later appeared on an application to commence a university course involving working with children.

The European Court of Human Rights is set to hand down its judgment next week on the cases of four British Christians who claim that UK law does not sufficiently protect their rights to freedom of religion by preventing religious discrimination at work.

The UK Government has fought the four long-running cases right up to European level, stating that in some cases Christians will need to leave their faith at home, or consider alternative employment.

One case concerns Lillian Ladele, a registrar at Islington Council, who brought a claim against her former employers claiming she was pushed out of her job because of her stance against civil partnerships.

The Bill of Rights Commission that was set up to debate the future of Human Rights in the UK has failed to reach a unanimous conclusion to their discussions.

The Commission on a Bill of Rights was set up as part of the deal that saw the Liberal Democrats join the Conservatives in a coalition government.

The Commission was formed on 18 March 2011 and reported its findings on Wednesday this week.

The tragic death of 31 year-old Savita Halappanavar in Galway, Ireland has led to fresh calls for a review of abortion laws in Northern Ireland, headed by one of the country's leading obstetricians.

Ms Halappanavar died of multiple organ failure on 28th October, after contracting septicaemia as a result of a miscarriage. Doctors at University Hospital Galway denied her a potentially life-saving abortion because the state's strict abortion laws do not allow a termination in such circumstances, and when she presented the doomed foetus still had a heartbeat.

Abortion is still widely outlawed in Ireland on a religious and ethical basis, something that many in the state wish to see changed after this tragic incident.

The UK Supreme Court will reportedly investigate the circumstances of the death of a British soldier killed in Iraq to determine soldiers' 'right to life' under article two of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Private Phillip Hewett of the Staffordshire Regiment was killed by a roadside bomb that hit the armoured 'Snatch' Land Rover that he was travelling in.

The Court of Appeal has ruled that the relatives of soldiers killed in action can pursue claims against the UK Government for negligence, but cannot sue for compensation under the Human Rights Act 1998.

A Bradford bus driver has won his claim for racial discrimination at the European Court of Human Rights after his lawyers successfully argued that his dismissal for membership of the hard-right British National Party breached his human right to freedom of association under article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

In 2004 Arthur Redfearn, who is disabled, was a 'first-class' driver of a minibus for the disabled on behalf of Serco Limited, a contractor for West Yorkshire Transport Service.

He was dismissed on 'health and safety' grounds after winning an election to the post of councilor for the right-wing British National Party.

The Government has revealed that it will legislate to ensure that patient's families are consulted before doctors decide to place them on an 'end-of-life' care pathway.

The reforms, which were put to consultation yesterday, will allow hospitals and doctors to be sued if they fail in their obligation to consult families.

The Liverpool Care Pathway is the controversial NHS scheme that has caused considerable uproar in recent weeks, after it emerged that doctors were placing patients on the pathway without informing their relatives.