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Ms Borland
DEPENDENT TERRITORIES:
1.
EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Your minute of 25 February refers.
2. There are seven dependent territories, viz:-
Anguilla
Bermuda
Cayman Islands
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar
St Helena
4KG 380/1
Turks & Caicos
which has recognised: -
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a)
the competence of the European Commission to reczeve petitions
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!! week for
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reply.
b)
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the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights
for a further period of five years expiring Janaury 1986 (Command 8488 refers).
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3. As I understand the position (but Mr Livesey may wish to seek Legal Advisers views), There is no obligation on any dependent territory to amend eg. Local Law on homosexuality or corporal punishment etc, until such time as
as there has been a successful petition, on the matter at issue, to the Commission and a judgement against the territory by the European Courts. In other words (again, as I understand the position) the relevance of the Isle of Man birching case, which was brought to the attention of dependent territories, was not that the territory had to abolish corporal punishment, but that there might be a successful petition etc, from the territory.
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4. If there were such a successful petition etc from a territory, then as a first step we would no doubt seek to persuade the territory to amend the offending law. If this is not successful in most cases it would probably be then most if not all colonial constitutions contain a provision (see eg. sec 44 of the BVI Constitution, 1976) whereby the Governor can ensure the passage of a Bill through the LegislationES. In most cases this power is circumscribed so it would be a question for decision at the time whether it could appropriately be used in the circumstances of the case in question.
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SAMD
CODE 18.77
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Mr Livesey, HK&G
Mrs Vittery
Mr Herdman
Miss Doig
pPkw w
W W Wallace WIAD
(5.