First up has been the revelation that the Government’s claim to have backtracked on including inquests in its plans for secret courts is not all it seems. At the time, many hailed it as a significant success: justice had been safeguarded and we could all move on.
But this couldn’t be further from the truth. For one thing, the exclusion of inquests is by no means assured. It would only take a Cabinet Minister’s order to smuggle an inquest back within the scope of the closed-court procedures; hardly safeguarding their exclusion.
Inquests aside, the rest of these proposals remain undemocratic and unfair. The so-called concessions limiting the Bill’s scope did nothing to change the fundamental injustice at its heart.
Locking someone - and their lawyer - out of court while evidence crucial to their case is presented to the judge privately remains shockingly unfair and one-sided. How can justice be secured when key evidence remains secret and even the person affected by the outcome cannot know why a decision about their case has been reached?
The unfairness for any party involved in these cases is plain. But the problems with these proposals don’t end there. The plans were unveiled after a series of actions were brought against the UK intelligence agencies concerning their complicity in torture. Civil actions of this kind are one of the few ways that the Government has been held to account for these extremely serious allegations.
Government accountability is an essential part of a functioning democracy. Yet these secret justice proposals threaten this very accountability in cases dealing with gross human rights abuses. If the new plans are put into action, the intelligence services can simply cry "national security" and evidence of wrong-doing may never leave the Judge’s desk, let alone reach the public eye.
And just last week yet another damaging angle emerged: as is the case with superinjunctions, the Government has said this Bill will allow them to keep secret even the fact a secret procedure has been applied for. This also seriously threatens public accountability. We have no chance of keeping tabs on the use of these disturbing new measures if we have no way of knowing when they are being employed.
Worryingly unfair for claimants, damaging to democratic accountability and a chilling threat to our justice system, we mustn’t be bought off with token concessions or distracted by the haze of legalistic language that surrounds the proposals.
As parliamentarians return to Westminster from their summer holidays, let’s make sure they’re aware of the growing concern about this Bill. Liberal Democrat party members are certainly letting their MPs know, with a motion to drop the policy altogether featuring in their September conference agenda.
It is up to all of us to speak up against secret justice now - to ensure that it doesn’t soon become reality.
- Find out more about Liberty’s For Their Eyes Only campaign against Secret Justice and take action now by signing our petition and e-mailing your MP.
