Christmas holiday makers at risk: Law Society warning on lack of legal protection and rights

29 October 2009

Holiday makers visiting European countries for Christmas and New Year lack sufficient legal protection due to an absence of basic rights, warns the Law Society.

In response to European Justice ministers' agreement in principle on a Roadmap on procedural rights of suspects and the accused in criminal proceedings, the Law Society's Brussels office has called for European Governments to legislate to ensure individual's rights are protected across Europe as a matter of urgency.

Julia Bateman, head of the Society's Brussels Office, says: "Christmas Holiday makers, travelling football fans and others visiting European countries this winter could find themselves alone in a foreign country without any assistance and unable to understand or follow an investigation against them. There is a real risk here of miscarriages of justice simply because of a lack of understanding or access to legal advice.

"We have long campaigned on this issue, and while we have seen considerable progress on developing a Europe-wide strategy on fighting crime, the protection of individual rights has been left largely untouched."

The Society says that it has been 10 years since European countries agreed that their police and judges should work together to fight crime and in parallel that individual rights should be protected. During this time they have forged ahead with co-operation ranging from fast-track surrender procedures to sharing of evidence including DNA. However, they have failed to take sufficient action to protect individual rights such as access to legal advice.

This week European Governments reached agreement in principle on a Roadmap on procedural rights of suspects and the accused in criminal proceedings. It envisages addressing certain procedural rights one at a time, using a step-by-step-approach, and emphasises that the possibility of other rights should also be considered.

Julia Bateman says: "The Roadmap is intended to overcome the lamentable failure of European Governments to reach agreement on a wholesale package of very basic procedural rights over five years ago.

"The Law Society hopes that the UK will now vigourously support and progress every step of the Roadmap and beyond so that travellers and others are no longer in for the long haul. Not just narrow proposals on translation and interpretation, on which European Governments have already reached agreement in principle, but also the very basic rights that the Law Society has called for."

The Society has called for the right of suspects and defendants, at all stages of the criminal process from investigation, to: legal advice and legal representation with legal aid for those who cannot afford it; consult the lawyer in private and receive legal advice in the strictest confidence; silence; receive information on rights, the charge, and the procedure at the police station, during detention, and beyond orally, and in writing in the suspect's own language; be present at all hearings in person; and minimum standards for detention conditions not just in respect of length of detention.

Julia Bateman adds: "European Justice Ministers have now acknowledged that the protection of procedural rights of the individual need to be redressed and have expressed their will for very basic procedural guarantees. The European Union must seize this opportunity to introduce binding rights throughout Europe."

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