O'Sullivan&Fazaeli_Strategic Use_Ireland v UK case.pdf (680.81 kB)
Multilateralism, human rights and the 1970s: insights from Ireland's role in the development of the human rights field
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-15, 20:51 authored by Aisling O'SullivanAisling O'Sullivan, Roja FazaeliThe Ireland v United Kingdom case concerns the treatment of detainees by British security forces in Northern Ireland and the implementation of internment or detention without trial, introduced in Northern Ireland in 1971. By reading human rights ‘as a language’ and ‘an endless semantic battlefield’, we explore how the Irish Government in the Ireland v United Kingdom case sought to use the European Convention of Human Rights strategically to secure its own political assessment towards internment and the controversial interrogation methods as a legal outcome before a regional human rights institution. In this sense, the Irish legal team re-described and reframed the Irish Government’s political position on the use of internment and of interrogation methods in the language of Convention and according to concepts developed within the European Commission of Human Rights jurisprudence. We focus on two strategic moves that the Irish legal team pursued at the admissibility and merits stages of the European Commission of Human Rights proceedings, namely, submitting a wider range of allegations, alongside article 3 allegations, as an administrative practice and advocating for the hearing of expert testimony on the use of the interrogation methods (the ‘five techniques’). We explore these strategic moves in order to illustrate the semantic battlefield in operation and the potential limits of the strategic use of human rights as a language.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Journal
Irish Studies in International AffairsISSN
0332-1460Publisher
Royal Irish AcademyExternal DOI
Volume
29Page range
181-197Department affiliated with
- Law Publications
Research groups affiliated with
- Sussex Centre for Human Rights Research Publications
- Crime Research Centre Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2018-10-25First Open Access (FOA) Date
2018-12-13First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-10-24Usage metrics
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