## Facts

- Six Iraqi civilians died in Basra, Iraq, in 2003 while United Kingdom forces operated there as part of an occupying coalition.
- Five decedents were shot and killed by British soldiers during street patrols or security operations.
- The sixth, Baha Mousa, was detained in a British military detention facility and died after severe mistreatment by British soldiers.
- Relatives sought judicial review challenging the Secretary of State for Defence’s refusal to order an independent public inquiry and asserting violations of the right to life, including the duty to conduct an effective investigation.
- The claims were brought under the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA), requiring proof that a U.K. public authority acted incompatibly with a Convention right within the scope of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

## Issues

1. Whether the decedents were within the United Kingdom’s “jurisdiction” under Article 1 ECHR, such that the HRA applied to killings in Iraq by U.K. forces.
2. Whether, if jurisdiction existed, Article 2 ECHR imposed a procedural duty to conduct an effective, independent investigation into the deaths.
3. Whether the U.K.’s status as an occupying power and exercise of security functions in Basra constituted sufficient “effective control” to extend ECHR jurisdiction to street killings.

## Decision

- The House of Lords, by a majority, held that only Baha Mousa (the detainee who died in a British military detention facility) was within U.K. jurisdiction under Article 1 ECHR.
- The majority held that the five civilians killed during street operations were not within U.K. jurisdiction under then-current Strasbourg authority and therefore were outside the HRA/ECHR investigative obligations.
- For the detainee death, Article 2’s procedural obligation to investigate was engaged; the adequacy of military investigations and related proceedings had to be assessed against Article 2 standards (including independence and effectiveness).
- Lord Bingham dissented on jurisdiction, concluding that the U.K.’s authority in occupied Basra and the control exercised by its agents were sufficient to bring all six deaths within Article 1 jurisdiction.

## Legal Principles

- The HRA applies to overseas conduct of U.K. public authorities only when the victim is within U.K. jurisdiction as understood under Article 1 ECHR.
- ECHR jurisdiction is primarily territorial but can extend extraterritorially where state agents exercise authority and control over an individual, including custody in an overseas detention facility.
- Occupation and significant security responsibilities in an area do not, without more, automatically extend Article 1 jurisdiction to all inhabitants or to all street-level uses of force, under the majority’s interpretation of Strasbourg case law at the time.
- When Article 1 jurisdiction is established in a death caused by state agents, Article 2 imposes a procedural duty to conduct an effective and sufficiently independent official investigation capable of determining responsibility and securing accountability.

## Conclusion

The House of Lords limited the extraterritorial reach of the ECHR/HRA in Iraq to the detainee death occurring under direct U.K. custody and control, triggering Article 2’s investigative duty only for that case, while denying Convention jurisdiction—and thus investigative obligations—for five killings during street patrol operations in Basra.


R (Al-Skeini) v. Sec’y of State for Def., [2007] UKHL 26 (appeal taken from Eng.)