## Facts

- During the early 1970s conflict in Northern Ireland, British forces detained and interrogated suspected security offenders.
- Some detainees were subjected, during “interrogation in depth,” to a combination of five methods: (1) forcing detainees to stand against a wall for hours (stress position), (2) keeping a black hood over the head except during questioning, (3) exposing detainees to continuous loud hissing noise, (4) depriving detainees of sleep, and (5) depriving detainees of adequate food and drink.
- The methods were used together to obtain information and were reported to cause severe physical strain, anxiety, disorientation, and lasting psychological effects.
- Ireland brought an inter-State complaint against the United Kingdom before the European Commission of Human Rights, alleging that the interrogation practices breached Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibiting torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment).
- The Commission conducted a lengthy investigation, including evidence-taking, and issued its report under former Article 31 of the Convention, later published in the 1976 Yearbook materials cited here.
- In addition to Article 3, the case materials addressed the United Kingdom’s emergency security regime in Northern Ireland, including detention and internment measures and the United Kingdom’s reliance on derogation under Article 15.

## Issues

1. Whether the combined use of the “five techniques” constituted torture or, at least, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment prohibited by Article 3.
2. Whether the use of the five techniques was attributable to the United Kingdom as a practice, rather than isolated acts by individual personnel.
3. Whether arrest, detention, and internment measures in Northern Ireland violated Article 5 (liberty and security), and if so, whether any violations were excused by a valid derogation under Article 15.
4. Whether the situation amounted to a “public emergency threatening the life of the nation,” and whether the measures taken were “strictly required by the exigencies of the situation” for Article 15 purposes.

## Decision

- The Commission concluded that the combined use of the five techniques amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to Article 3.
- The Commission did not characterize the five techniques as “torture” within Article 3 as applied in its report.
- The Commission treated the interrogation methods as attributable to the respondent State, based on their organized use in interrogations rather than being one-off misconduct.
- The Commission accepted that Northern Ireland faced a public emergency for Article 15 purposes, but still identified Convention breaches connected to detention and related safeguards under Article 5 that were not fully justified by derogation.
- The Commission reaffirmed that Article 3 permits no derogation, even during an emergency.

## Legal Principles

- Article 3 prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; it allows no exceptions and no derogation under Article 15.
- Whether conduct falls within Article 3 depends on the severity of suffering and humiliation, assessed in context, including purpose, duration, and the cumulative effect of combined methods.
- A set of interrogation methods can breach Article 3 even without permanent physical injury, where it causes intense mental suffering and serious physical strain.
- In inter-State cases, responsibility may be established where the impugned conduct is linked to official methods used in detention and interrogation, not merely unauthorized acts by individuals.
- Article 15 allows limited derogation from certain rights only when a public emergency exists and the measures go no further than required; derogation does not remove international review of the necessity and scope of detention-related measures under Article 5.

## Conclusion

In its 1976 report materials, the European Commission of Human Rights found that the United Kingdom’s combined use of the “five techniques” in Northern Ireland violated Article 3 as inhuman and degrading treatment (not torture in the Commission’s characterization), treated the methods as State-attributable, and examined whether emergency detention measures complied with Article 5 as qualified by Article 15, while maintaining that Article 3 is non-derogable.


Ireland v. United Kingdom, 1976 Y.B. Eur. Conv. on H.R. 512, 748, 750, 792, 794 (1976)