Suggested activities. aAnswer the following questions:

a Answer the following questions:

When do you think this article was written?

2 Where was it published, to your mind?

3 Of what was the general accused?

4 How was the general arrested?

5 What is the general's fate?

b Complete the following questions using the text:

1 Did the British government first ignore............................................................................................................

2 What was the dicision of England's Lord Chief...............................................................................................

3 Who overruled...................... ............................................................................................................................

4 Did Britain's home secretary...........................................................................................................................

5 Did the High Court..........................................................................................................................................

с Mark the correct statements with a tick:

1 Many treaties have been signed ruling out immunity for any officials. 

2 Many international treaties of this kind have been applied by varfious countries. 

3 No other countries started proceedings against the general. 

4 A permanent international criminal court is being planned. 

5 Mounting an international prosecution is very easy. 

6 Extraditions remain as much a political as a legal proceeding. 

d Summarise what the article said about:

• General Pinochet

• extradition and international law

Part H. Human Rights

Section 1: The Tyrer Case

Section 2: The 50^th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights

Section 1: The Tyrer Case

Text 1

The European Court of Human Rights was established by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and was set up in Strasbourg in 1959. The Convention, which was drawn up by the Council of Europe in 1950, was inspired by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and protects many essential rights as the right to life, freedom from torture and slavery, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, the right to marry and found a family, freedom of peaceable assembly and association, and the right to a fair trial. Only states which are parties to the Convention and the European Commission of Human Rights have the right to bring a case before the Court. Some states have incorporated the Convention into domestic law, but Britain has not, so that it is not directly inforceable as British law.

A few texts that follow describe a case referred by Mr. Tyrer, a British citizen, to the European Commission of Human Rights in 1978.

The applicant claimed before the Commission that the facts of his case constituted a breach of Article 3 of the Convention which provides: «No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment».

He alleged that there had been torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or any combination thereof.

In its report, the Commission expressed the opinion that judicial corporal punishment, being degrading, constituted a breach of Article 3 and that, consequently, its infliction on the applicant was in violation of that provision.

The case was then referred to the European Court of Human Rights.