‘Hooded Men’ to support referral of torture case to Grand Chamber of the European Union

The Government of Ireland’s application to revise the Ireland v United Kingdom ruling was dismissed by the ECtHR yesterday, though Irish judge Síofra O’Leary provided a dissenting opinion.

In a joint statement, lawyers Ben Emmerson QC, Amal Clooney, Adam Straw and Darragh Mackin said they agreed with Ms Justice O’Leary’s dissenting opinion that the ECtHR had wrongly “sought to shelter itself” behind the principle of legal certainty.

They added that it was “shameful that the request by the Hooded Men to intervene in the case was completely ignored by the Court”.

They wrote: “In an era where human rights litigation is supposed to be victim-centred it is disappointing that the decision reached by the is one taken without first affording the victims an opportunity to address the Court in their capacity as directly affected persons.”

It concludes: “Our clients have instructed us to take steps to support a referral of this case to the Grand Chamber of the European Union. It is hoped that this injustice can be corrected in that forum, for the sake of the integrity of the Court and survivors of torture all over the world.”

In a statement published after the ruling yesterday, Amnesty International said the court’s judgment was “very disappointing”.

Grainne Teggart, Amnesty’s Northern Ireland campaigns manager, said: “We believe the Court has missed a vital opportunity to put right a historic wrong. Instead, it relied largely on procedural arguments to avoid substantively revisiting its 1978 ruling.”