[ILUG] 1984 [Fwd: Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act]

[Paul Jakma]

On Fri, 27 Apr 2001, Wesley Darlington wrote:

>
> On Thu, Apr 26, 2001 at 05:34:08PM +0100, Paul Jakma wrote:
> > hmmm... thing is that it is not at all clear how the UK's RIP act and
> > the EU Convention on Human Rights can be reconciled. If they can't be,
> > then the EU CHR takes precedence.
>
> Why?

AIUI:

Because it defines the uncontravenable rights of individuals. It is a
vague, abstract convention that defines the innate rights of
individuals in the EU.

The EU Court of Human Rights interprets the Convention.

The EU sets out directives, which EU members are required to implement
in local law. sometimes directives have exceptions to allow already
established local legislation to remain.

Neither directives nor local legislation may contravene the convention
on human rights. (course that's a matter of interpretation). The RIP
certainly does not further the rights of individuals, and it arguably
may contravene the convention, esp. wrt to privacy of correspondence.

anyway... you can sit with your head in your hands and go "well
they're going to snoop on me anyway..", but my point is you don't
have to. My point is that you *do* have rights... All those
politicians put their signatures to the EUHCR back in the 70s or so,
thus making it binding upon them and successive governments.

So if you think that your supposedly left-wing govt. in the UK has
lost the plot you *do* have a forum to take your grievance to.

I'm not sure, but it might even have been Ted Heath that signed the UK
up to the EUCHR (he signed them up to the EU anyway afaik). Wouldn't
that be ironic, a tory prime minister signing up to a convention on
human rights, which a future /labour/ govt. would (possibly)
contravene with some extremely right-wing legislation...

anyway...

I'm sure everyone is sick of me harping on about this. But i don't
give a fsck, i'll keep harping. There is nothing worse than people
acceding rights with nothing but a whimper...

> ATB,
> Wesley.

--paulj