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Torture and the fight against terrorism : the case of Northern Ireland
Mémoire - Culture Générale - 9 pages - Format Microsoft Word
Years of tension between Catholics and Protestants brought to Northern Ireland a dramatic situation. In 1967, the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association began a “civil rights movement” (as a reference to Martin Luther King), asking more representation of the Catholic community and the abolition of the franchise they had to pay to vote for local governments, among other wills. However, despite the initial position of the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland (O’Neill), who agreed to answer some of the demands, the position of the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association were perceived by certain unionists as unjustified in what was for them “a protestant country”, and they saw in the association the IRA “Trojan Horse”. From that moment, violent incidents broke out during civil rights demonstrations, when groups of loyalists attacked the demonstrators. The RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) was hardly criticised for non intervening and therefore allowing these incidents to occur.
Through 1969, the tension escalated, mostly during the Battle of the Bogside, which started on the 12th of August and consisted on a violent rioting between loyalists and the police against nationalists, until the British Army had to intervene. However, the Battle had initiated a wave of rioting in Belfast, starting by demonstrations supporting the Bogside residents, but exploded when a grenade was thrown against a police station. The supporters of the IRA began condemning the organization for not defending the Catholic community, and started calling it the “I Run Away”. At the beginning of the 1970’s, political violence became widespread, the British Army was mobilised, and in 1972, more than 500 people were killed. The Provisional IRA, formed in 1969, embraced an aggressive position, using bombings and killings.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the answer of the British government to this critical situation, specially to the terrorist actions of the IRA. Indeed, the emergency legislation lead to violations of the rights of those accused of being involved in terrorism, and frequently lead to torture.
Plan du document :
I) A legal base was set, in which torture could happen and was widespread during detention
a) The legal evolution of the emergency measures
b) Their application : the “five techniques of interrogation”
II) The international law: a contradictory effect
a) The lack of concrete international measures to prevent the emergency laws
b) The Ireland v United Kingdom case : an ambiguous sentence
III) The abuses of the underground justice
a) The implementation of an alternative justice…
b) …Which actions can be considered as torture
c) The evolution of its dynamics
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