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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 9:21 pm
Time: 9:21 pm
Results for military justice
1 results foundAuthor: Norton, Emma Title: Military Justice: Second-Rate Justice. Criminal justice, complaints and human rights myths in the armed forces Summary: Liberty has today published a comprehensive report on the military justice system, revealing that UK service men and women continue to be badly failed by the Armed Forces' in-house policing and legal systems, especially where rape and other serious offences are concerned. The new report has led Liberty to today launch the first-ever Armed Forces Human Rights Helpline, designed to offer free, independent legal advice to all current and former serving men and women and their families. CRIMINAL JUSTICE The report, "Second-Rate Justice", details significant flaws in the way the Armed Forces deal with some of the most sensitive and serious criminal cases involving service personnel. It damningly highlights the military's deep-rooted preference for its own internal and inadequate Service Justice System (SJS) - which includes the Service Police, the military's own police forces consisting of the Royal Military Police, Royal Naval Police and the RAF Police - and its hostility to outside scrutiny from more experienced civilian police and prosecutors. Despite the fact that the civilian justice system should take priority over the military system, the report demonstrates that this is not happening and paints a picture of a 'boys' club' approach to justice in the Armed Forces that prevents the impartial and effective investigation of some of the most serious cases. It details how: The Service Police are taking charge of investigations into alleged sexual offences including rapes, even though the legal presumption is that these should be dealt with by civilian police. In 2017 alone, 123 investigations were carried out by the Royal Military Police. Liberty believes that the majority of these should have been dealt with by the civilian police because they happened in the UK. Shockingly, a previous recommendation from Liberty that allegations of rape should always be investigated by civilian police has still not been acted upon. Some offences appear to be being downgraded to less serious offences, so that they can be dealt with internally and not go to court at all. For example, an allegation of sexual assault - which must be referred to the Service Police - may be reduced to battery which a Commanding Officer can deal with him/herself without referring it to the police at all. This practice must stop. The Ministry of Defence's inadequate methods of recording sexual crimes, and the downgrading of serious crimes to lesser offences, mean that the real scale of sexual offending in the Armed Forces is likely to be significantly higher than MoD statistics indicate. For example, the government department continues to refuse to record or publish any data at all about such serious sexual offences as creating or possessing indecent images of children, possession of extreme pornographic images, revenge porn offences, sexual communications with a child or criminal harassment offences. For the sake of accuracy, transparency and public confidence, data on the prevalence of these offences ought to be recorded and published. Conviction rates for rape in the military are even lower than civilian rates - which are already far too low. In 2017, just two of the 48 rape cases that made it to Court Martial resulted in a conviction. The new report makes 21 important recommendations which would ensure service personnel enjoy the same rights and protections as civilians. They include: Ensuring all serious criminal offences in the UK are investigated by civilian, not Service Police. Combining the three branches of the Service Police into a single force and embed them in civilian forces so that, when they must deploy abroad, they are sufficiently experienced, trained and supervised. Bringing the Service Police under the oversight of an independent expert supervisory body. Ensuring the independent Service Complaints Ombudsman is involved in serious cases of bullying, sexual harassment or racial or other discrimination at an early stage with her own fully-funded independent powers of investigation. Details: London: Liberty, 2019. 91p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 6, 2019 at: https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/sites/default/files/LIB%2010%20Military%20Justice%20Report%2020_01_19.pdf Year: 2019 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/sites/default/files/LIB%2010%20Military%20Justice%20Report%2020_01_19.pdf Shelf Number: 154829 Keywords: Armed ForcesHuman Rights AbusesMilitary JusticeSex CrimesSexual Assault |