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| McCann and Others v United Kingdom | |
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| Court | European Court of Human Rights |
McCann and Others v United Kingdom 21 ECHR 97 GC is a legal case tried in 1995 before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) regarding a purported breach of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) by the United Kingdom.
Intelligence suggested a team of known Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members (Daniel McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell) were planning a bombing in Gibraltar.[ citation needed ] One of the members was a known explosives expert while the others had been linked as well as convicted for various explosive and terrorist related activities.[ citation needed ] During surveillance, the team crossed the border from Spain with no resistance from the authorities and subsequently parked a car in a crowded place. In past instances, the IRA had employed remote control detonators and intelligence suggested the car was rigged with explosives with the suspects holding the remote detonator.
A team of SAS soldiers was sent to intercept and arrest them on conspiracy charges, in an operation code-named Operation Flavius. The team, in accordance with their training, shot and killed the suspects which at the time the teams claimed to be a justifiable response to the suspects allegedly reaching for what the team believed were the detonators. The inquest into the shootings found no breach of Article 2 or the Gibraltar constitution. At the time of the shootings the suspects had neither a detonator nor any explosives. A car was however found registered under one of the suspects names which had been laced with explosive devices of 'ticking time bomb' type and not remote detonators. It appeared that the suspects were on a reconnaissance-mission and had parked their car to save a space for the actual car containing the explosives.[ citation needed ]
McCann and Others v United Kingdom was the first case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) to concern Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the right to life. [1] The ECtHR considered whether the shooting was disproportionate to the aims to be achieved by the state in apprehending the suspects and defending the citizens of Gibraltar from unlawful violence; the court found a violation of Article 2: the killing of the three IRA members did not constitute a use of force which was "absolutely necessary" as proscribed by Article 2-2.
The violation of Article 2 was found by a vote of 10 to 9 in the planning by the Authorities in that it was not "strictly proportionate" to the objectives to be achieved; i.e. saving lives. First, the court found a breach in the failure to arrest the suspects at the border so as to safeguard all human lives concerned. Second, the court found that the authorities did not consider the correctness of the intelligence (which turned out to be wrong) and, thirdly, the use of SAS soldiers - combat teams trained to shoot to kill - also amounted to a procedural failure in planning the mission which breached article 2. Nine of nineteen judges dissented: Ryssdal, Bernhardt, Vilhjálmsson, Gölcüklü, Palm, Pekkanen, Freeland, Baka and Jambrek. The court rejected that the UK had specifically planned an execution mission and not an arrest mission and dismissed unanimously the applicants' claims save for compensation for legal expenses.
The Court held:
The judgment was criticised by various British MPs, including deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine who described it as "incomprehensible and dangerous". [2]
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a contracting state has breached one or more of the human rights enumerated in the convention or its optional protocols to which a member state is a party. The court is based in Strasbourg, France.
"Death on the Rock" was a British television documentary, part of Thames Television's current affairs series This Week. It was broadcast in 1988. The programme examined the killing of three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) members in Gibraltar in March 1988 by the British Special Air Service. "Death on the Rock" presented evidence that the IRA members were shot without warning or with their hands up. It was condemned by the British government and denounced in the press as sensationalist. After one of its witnesses retracted his statement, "Death on the Rock" became the first individual documentary to be the subject of an independent inquiry, in which it was largely vindicated.
Operation Flavius was a military operation in which three members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) were shot dead by the British Special Air Service (SAS) in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988. The trio were believed to be planning a car bomb attack on British military personnel in Gibraltar. They were shot dead while leaving the territory, having parked a car. All three were found to be unarmed, and no bomb was discovered in the car, leading to accusations that the British government had conspired to murder them. An inquest in Gibraltar ruled that the authorities had acted lawfully but the European Court of Human Rights held that, although there had been no conspiracy, the planning and control of the operation was so flawed as to make the use of lethal force almost inevitable. The deaths were the first in a chain of violent events in a fourteen-day period. On 16 March, the funeral of the three IRA members was attacked, leaving three mourners dead. At the funeral of one, two British soldiers were murdered after driving into the procession in error.
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Mairéad Farrell was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). She was shot and killed by the British Army in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988.
Seán Savage was a member of the Provisional IRA who was shot dead by the British Army whilst being accused attempting to plant a car bomb in Gibraltar.
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Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence", subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic society". The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe.
In the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 2 protects the right to life. The article contains a limited exception for the cases of lawful executions and sets out strictly controlled circumstances in which the deprivation of life may be justified. The exemption for the case of lawful executions has been subsequently further restricted by Protocols 6 and 13, for those parties who are also parties to those protocols.
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Article 3 – Prohibition of torture
No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights is a provision of the European Convention which protects the right to a fair trial. In criminal law cases and cases to determine civil rights it protects the right to a public hearing before an independent and impartial tribunal within reasonable time, the presumption of innocence, right to silence and other minimum rights for those charged in a criminal case.
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