Human Rights Law- Article 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Human Rights Law- Article 2 - Essay Example 1. Everyones right to life shall be protected by law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally save in the execution of a sentence of a court following his conviction of a crime for which this penalty is provided by law. The laws clauses already give us important distinctions. First of all: The right under Article 2 is clearly largely negative. While the first clause, â€Å"Everyones right to life shall be protected under law†, could be used to support a positive rights argument against impositions that cause starvation or other threats to life, the rest of the clause indicates that it is a negative protection against state and private impositions. Further, the end of the first clause and the second establish that authorities do have the right to take away lives under a death penalty, and have the ability to use lethal force to quell riots or for other legitimate law enforcement requirements. But they can only use limited force. These elements were tested by McCann v. U.K.2. In the case, UK intelligence alleged an IRA or IRA-connected attack upon Gibraltar. The suspected IRA team included known explosives experts. During the surveillance of the suspects, the IRA team crossed into Spain, receiving no impedence from Spanish authorities. UK intelligence had reason to believe that a detonator could be used remotely, even across the Spanish border. The IRA team had also parked a car in a crowded location, and had used carbombings before as a method of terror. SAS soldiers were dispatched to intercept the team and arrest them for conspiracy. But during the arrest attempt, the SAS soldiers fired because they believed that the IRA team was reaching for detonators. The ensuing investigation found that, while the IRA team had no explosives or detonators on their person or in the vicinity, a car registered by the IRA team had timed explosives in it. The investigation concluded that the