Responding to human rights judgments : Government response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights' thirty-first report of session 2007-08

On 31 October, 2008 the Joint Committee on Human Rights (the Joint Committee) published its report 'Monitoring the Government's Response to Human Rights Judgments: Annual Report 2008 (HL 173/HC 1078)', the most recent in an approximately annual series of reports on this subject.

This paper, sets out the Government's position on the implementation of human rights judgments.

In doing so, it responds to the recommendations made by the Joint Committee in its most recent report, and a small number of outstanding matters from the preceding report and other correspondence.

The Joint Committee's report was also the subject of a debate in Grand Committee in the House of Lords on 24 November 2008, during which the Government set out its response to many of the Joint Committee's observations and recommendations - those points have nevertheless been addressed again in this Paper.

This Paper is divided into two principal parts. Following the summary and some general comments, the first main part addresses specific cases on which the Joint Committee has commented. The second main part considers the wider system for responding to judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and declarations of incompatibility.