Liberty to test HRA

Human rights organisation Liberty has launched a human rights litigation unit, which aims to lead the way in test case litigation under the Human Rights Act 1998.The unit consists of seven in-house lawyers, led by legal director James Welch, and a specialist panel of 150 barristers who will take the cases to court.Mr Welch explained the reasons behind the establishment of the unit.

'When the Human Rights Act came into force, we were very worried about the English courts' interpretation of the Act being too restrictive,' he said.

'A year on, we are still worried that the courts are not giving it its true interpretation, and we are also concerned that the government views the Act as a ceiling, rather than going on to interpret further internationally recognised human rights protections into domestic law.'Mr Welch said the unit would take on cases it saw as important, and bring them to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to act as a final court of appeal.

'At the moment we are aware of a number of cases decided in this country's courts where there is a good chance that Strasbourg would have ruled differently,' he said.Liberty currently has a broad range of human rights cases at Strasbourg, such as that of Christopher Edwards, who was killed by his cellmate while in police custody, and Geoff Peck, whose attempt to commit suicide was caught on CCTV and broadcast on national television.

Victoria MacCallum