EU: Undercover policing update: police admit breaching prohibtion on torture; crowdfunding campaign launched; complaint to UN
08 December 2017
Support our work: become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
EU
Undercover policing update: police admit breaching prohibtion on torture; crowdfunding campaign launched; complaint to UN
8.12.17
Follow us: 
| 
| Tweet
Three new developments in the ongoing undercover policing saga and the struggle for justice:
- at a hearing at the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the police have acknowledged the the relationship between Mark Kennedy (a former undercover officer) and Kate Wilson breached Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, prohibiting torture and inhumane or degrading treatment, and Article 8 on the right to a private and family life;
- a crowdfunding campaign has been launched so that individuals targeted by undercover officers infilitrating protest groups and social movements are able to attend hearings of the Undercover Policing Inquiry, which has denied core participants financial support to do so; and
- seven women deceived into relationships with undercover officers have submitted a complaint with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
Spycops Relationships Amount to Torture, Met Admit (COPS, link):
"The Metropolitan Police have admitted that undercover officers deceiving women into relationships breaches human rights.
Specifically, it breaches the right to freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, and also the right to a family and private life.
The shock revelation came this week in the latest legal hearing for social justice activist Kate Wilson, who was deceived into a two year relationship by undercover officer Mark Kennedy from 2003 to 2005."
Support Victims of Police Spying Get Access to Justice(Crowd Justice, link):
"We are launching this campaign as part of the Spy Cops Communications Group, set up to ensure that people targeted by political policing in the UK get access to justice.
Nearly 200 of us have been spied upon by a undercover officers and have been accepted as ''core participants" in the official Inquiry into Undercover Policing.
The Inquiry is a very formal and legalistic process, endlessly delayed by the police in their efforts to avoid any transparency and scrutiny. It is very difficult to follow the proceedings without a little help. On top of that, to date the Inquiry has refused to pay for core participants to attend hearings and other vital meetings."
Deceived women launch sexism complaint to United Nations against UK government undercover policing (Police Spies Out of Lives, link):
"Seven women psychologically and sexually abused by undercover policemen infiltrating UK protest groups have lodged a complaint to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The women complain that the United Kingdom Government has failed to prevent institutionalised discrimination against women by the police. All the women suffered serious psychological harm through having been deceived into long term intimate relationships with undercover policemen. These intimate relationships involved five different undercover police officers over a period spanning nearly 25 years.
In one of the first complaints of its kind made to the committee, the case stands to trigger a potential investigation and finding against the UK government. The UK is a signatory to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), under which the case is being brought."
Search our database for more articles and information or subscribe to our mailing list for regular updates from Statewatch News Online.
Our work is only possible with your support.
Become a Friend of Statewatch from as little as £1/€1 per month.
Spotted an error? If you've spotted a problem with this page, just click once to let us know.