Child Abuse Inquiry Updates

17 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by Natasha in child abuse inquiry, Researching Reform

There’s been a lot of movement at the nation’s Independent Inquiry Into Child Sexual Abuse this week, so we felt it was important to write a post on this.

The resignation of another senior lawyer at the Inquiry has left victims and survivors feeling angry and disappointed that panel members are allowing disagreements to get in the way of the Inquiry’s work.

Adding to this feeling of despair is the news that the Inquiry’s investigation into the late Peer, Lord Janner, has also been delayed. The damning report into Police investigations over the allegations of a VIP paedophile ring, which identified over 40 failings, has also left its mark – ‘Nick’, the man who claimed he had been raped by several MPs is now himself under investigation. The police have rounded on the judge who made the findings, warning that the report could deter victims from coming forward in the future.

One question still remains: despite the failings, how can we be sure that Nick’s allegations are unfounded?

An ex MP who was accused of abusing children, and later cleared due to a lack of evidence has spoken out about the hardship the 18 month investigation has caused him. Harvey Proctor says the experience has left him without a home and a job and is now almost unemployable as a result of the allegations. He has since decided to take legal action against the police. Whilst we have every sympathy for those wrongly accused of a crime, Mr Proctor was given an apology by the police for their investigation of him – more than the average citizen gets when they’re accused of a crime they’re eventually cleared of. Perhaps the government will think about looking into improving the way law enforcement deals with allegations, for everyone, not just the elite.

Meanwhile, two people have been arrested in connection with allegations of historical child abuse against the late Prime Minister Edward Heath.

We can expect to hear more next week about the alleged sexual assault at the Inquiry, and possible reasons for panel lawyers resigning in droves – The Home Affairs Select Committee has asked lawyers to explain why they have chosen to leave the inquiry, and offer insight into the sexual assault allegation made by an individual against the Inquiry’s most senior lawyer at the time. We’ll share these letters with you as soon as they’re published.

And finally, some good news: you can now write to the Inquiry for free just by using their new FREEPOST address. Just write ‘Freepost HEAD OFFICE’ on your envelope (no other address details are needed).

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How To File Your Case With The European Court Of Human Rights

17 Thursday Nov 2016

Posted by Natasha in Human Rights, Researching Reform, The Buzz

≈ 3 Comments

One of the things we are asked regularly is how and when a family can apply to the European Court Of Human Rights to hear their case, and now the ECHR has provided a really useful guide explaining this, and it’s been really well done.

If a family, parent or child wish to apply to the ECHR, first, they need to have exhausted all the remedies available to them in their home country. This usually means allowing a case to run its course from the lower courts all the way up to the appropriate highest court for that case. Once all avenues have been tried, if the parties still feel their case hasn’t been properly dealt with, they can then apply to the European Court.

The ECHR’s home page for the guide is divided into sections, including:

How To Make A Valid Application
How To Submit An Application
How To Prepare Your Application and Information On How It Will Be Processed
A Q&A Section
An Admissibility Checklist to see if your case meets the criteria for lodging an application (just click the ‘next’ button right at the bottom of the first page to take you through)
A video showing you how to prepare an application
Information on Interim Measures (where the ECHR may ask a country to take certain measures whilst they continue to assess the case, such as stopping the country in question from doing something until the case has been reviewed).

The page even offers a full breakdown of the Rules Of Court, and related Practice Directions.

We love the level of detail here and the simple language that’s been used to make all this information easily accessible. It’s something we try hard to do in our spare time with our LIP Service videos, but we’re really delighted to see that the ECHR has taken the initiative and put together this guide.

Worth holding onto as well is this brochure from the House of Commons Library which was published this month, and also offers information on how to apply to the ECHR. Although it’s been prepared for Members of Parliament who are asked by their constituents about how to apply to the ECHR, it is also well written and offers a nice summary of the application process. At a comfortable 24 pages, we would recommend reading this first before diving into the ECHR’s own guide.

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