The Guardian reports (08 Jun 2010) that the head of the army during the invasion of Iraq, giving evidence at the Baha Mousa Inquiry, has delivered a withering attack on the commander of the regiment in whose custody a civilian was beaten to death:

One test for the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government could be how it approaches the human rights of armed forces personnel. Some commentators distrust the whole idea of human rights behind the barrack gates, or while deployed: 'You can't have human rights in the heat of battle'.

(15 March 2010) On the same day as The Daily Telegraph reports that Army training exercises have been cut by a third to save money, The Times reports that a mother’s battle to ensure that soldiers in war zones have their human rights protected will be challenged by the Government today, claiming that commanders will fear being sued for decisions made in the heat of battle.

The Sunday Times reports (04 April 2010) that [name omitted] returned from Iraq with a distinguished war record — and ended up in prison. The newspaper says that our jails are swollen with former soldiers: why can’t they stay out of trouble? The figures, previously mentioned on the BAFF website, remain controversial.

'Inside Housing' reports that a local authority has pledged to give members of the armed forces priority access to social housing and has set aside 15 homes:

Do British armed forces personnel have any human rights while on operations?

We have previously commented on the Smith case - known as Secretary of State for Defence v R and HM Assistant Deputy Coroner for Oxfordshire and Equality and Human Rights Commission - in which the Appeal Court had held that this protection applies whether or not soldiers are physically on an armed forces base or elsewhere.

• Equality and Human Rights Commission - Secretary of State for Defence v R and HM Assistant Deputy Coroner for Oxfordshire and Equality and Human Rights Commission

The case arises from the death of Scottish TA soldier Jason Smith on a British Army base in Iraq in 2003. The MoD eventually accepted that the Human Rights Act applied to Jason Smith's case as he died on a British army base. However, it argued it did not apply to a British soldier who is off base and the MoD appealed the High Court ruling. The Court of Appeal found against the MoD but granted leave to appeal, on the basis that the MoD will bear the costs.

BAFF has learned that the Ministry of Defence has now lodged an appeal, which will be heard by the new Supreme Court for the United Kingdom.

Parliament's Defence Select Committee has now warned that the imposition of defence cuts while British forces are still engaged in operations in Afghanistan could mean the remaining servicemen and women having to deploy for an extra three months. The Daily Mail reports that:

This year's Continuous Attitude Survey was published some days ago, but due to competing armed forces stories has received unusually little media attention. BritishForcesNews reported on the same day as the report was made available on this website for logged-in BAFF Members and BAFF Military Supporters. Now today's Mirror has a story about the survey.

A BAFF spokesman was asked about morale in three recent radio interviews about the tranche 1 redundancy notifications. Talk of "low morale" in the armed forces can be easily misunderstood, so our man made it clear that people generally were "not going about with long faces", and that service personnel were getting on with their jobs as they always do. But

VIENNA, 26 May 2008 - The OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) launched a handbook aimed at improving the protection of human rights of soldiers and other armed forces personnel on Wednesday in Vienna.