UK and the UN
In one of her last announcements as Secretary-of-State for Defence, Penny Morduant MP announced that while the deployment of UK engineers to the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan would end in 2020, the UK would then start a new three-year deployment of a 250 person strong long range reconnaissance force as part of the UN Peacekeeping mission in Mali: MINUSMA. The UNA-UK comments here.
Ambassador Karen Pierce, UK Permanent Representative to the UN issues statement at the Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict urging a conversation about the international legal framework, how to strengthen adherence to International Humanitarian Law and accountability for those who disregard it.
Members of the United Nations on Wednesday signed the Singapore Convention on Mediation, an agreement it hopes will make it easier to settle cross-border commercial disputes and stabilise trade relationships.
UK Parliament
The post-Iraq consensus that Government should seek Parliament’s prior approval for military action is today strengthened by a report from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC). It sets out what should be done, and by whom, when the use of military force is being considered, providing clarification for both Members of Parliament and the public.
European Human Rights Law in the UK Courts
In R (H) (by her litigation friend B) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2019] EWHC 2095 (Admin) the UK High Court considered a surrogacy case in which a claimant’s genetic father sought to be named on the claimant’s birth certificate. The claimant alleged that failure to do so breached their article 8 right to private and family life in conjunction with article 14 right to be free from discrimination. The Court held that the claimant’s private life had been interfered with but the interference met a legitimate aim and was necessary.
Brexit
The PM’s spokesman yesterday insisted that “no ifs, no buts” the UK will be leaving the EU on 31 October, and the penny seems to have dropped in the EU that Johnson really does mean it, even if that means departing in a disorderly fashion.
European diplomats were told yesterday that further negotiations with the UK were pointless so long as the PM insists on removing the Irish backstop from the existing withdrawal agreement. As a result, a no-deal departure is now viewed as the “central scenario”, meaning it’s more likely to happen than not.
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