Briefing on the Armed Forces Bill

Thursday, 20 July 2006, 11.30am-12.30pm, Room N, Portcullis House
(above Westminster tube, entrance on Victoria Embankment, wheelchair accessible)

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The Armed Forces Bill, a major redrafting of military law, will be in Committee in the House of Lords on 24 July (final date for amendments, 20 July). Yet from its start in November 2005 until May 2006 there was hardly a whisper in the media and a deafening silence from all but a few of the politicians who opposed the Iraq war. 

 

The UK government, worried that the number of soldiers absconding from the army has trebled since the invasion of Iraq, is legislating to repress this movement in the military.  Before peers vote on this Bill, they should be fully aware of serious objections to it from other Lords, MPs and the public.

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“I didn’t join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy.” Ben Griffin, UK refusenik, resigned from the SAS and refused to go back to Iraq. He spoke at the very effective Payday Briefing in the Commons (17 May).  At the Briefing, John McDonnell MP announced two amendments on Clause 8 that resulted in a two-and-a-half-hour debate on conscientious objection, sentencing and occupation - which had been virtually ignored in the Bill’s previous Stages.

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In this way, the government contravenes the Nuremberg Principles (1950) which enshrined in international law the responsibility of each of us to refuse to obey illegal and immoral orders from any government.  The eight-month sentence of Flight-Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith is a warning to military personnel who would act on principle.

Justin Hugheston-Roberts, the solicitor who represented RAF Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith when he was sentenced to eight months for refusing to serve in Iraq, said: "We are seeing an increase in the number of people who have absented themselves from service who come to us for advice."

The Bill ignores the injustices soldiers already face -- denied information, labour rights, and human rights. 

 

>>  Military personnel are rarely informed of the right to conscientious objection.

>>  Soldiers who refuse orders and want to declare themselves as COs are denied immediate access to the  Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors (ACCO).  ACCO hearings may be held after a prison sentence is completed, if at all – disciplinary hearings and sentencing come first.

>>  Soldiers on a serious criminal charge don’t have the right to demand a trial by a jury of 12 people in a civilian court.  At the present time they may be tried in front of a board of three officers of a court-martial -- whose pay, discipline and promotion depend upon their success in maintaining discipline. 

>>  The Bill may be incompatible with the Human Rights Act which gives everyone the right to a fair and public hearing of any criminal charge by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law.