Formal Response From Department of Foreign Affairs on ECHR Case

This published by the Celtic League:

Formal Response From Department of Foreign Affairs on ECHR Case

NEWS FROM THE CELTIC LEAGUE

The Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs has formerly responded to the query sent to his Office in late November urging action on the ‘Hooded Men’ case. The Minister had sent an initial holding reply on the day the query was emailed to him. (See links below).

The text of the (positive) response from the Minister is set out below:

“26 January 2015
Our Ref: AI0140260

Dear Mr. Moffatt,

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr. Charles Flanagan T.D., has asked me to respond on his behalf to your recent letter. As you may be aware, the Government decided on 2 December to ask the European Court of Human Rights to revise its judgment of the so-called ‘Hooded Men’ case.

The Government is aware of the suffering of the individual men and of their families, of the significance of this case, and of the weight of these allegations. The archival material which underlay the RTÉ documentary was therefore taken very seriously by the Government and was subject to thorough legal analysis and advice. On the basis of the new material uncovered and the legal advice received, the Government has requested the Court to revise its judgement so that the ill-treatment suffered by the Hooded Men can be recognised as torture.

The Government’s decision was not taken lightly. As EU partners, UK and Ireland have worked together to promote human rights in many fora and during the original case, the UK did not contest before the European Court of Human Rights that a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention of Human rights took place. The British and Irish Governments have both worked hard to build stronger more trusting relations in recent years and this relationship will now stand to us as we work through the serious matters raised by the new material which has come to light in recent months.

Yours sincerely,

Robert O’Driscoll
Private Secretary”

Related links on celticleague.net here:

https://www.celticleague.net/news/irish-government-urged-to-act-torture-...

https://www.celticleague.net/news/irish-government-to-act-over-hooded-me...

J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information

26/01/15

(Please note that replies to correspondence received by the League and posted on CL News are usually scanned hard copies. Obviously every effort is made to ensure the scanning process is accurate but sometimes errors do occur.)

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