Human Rights

Within the autonomous meaning afforded to “civil rights” by the European Court of Human Rights, a prisoner’s right of association with his fellow inmates was a civil right subject to the lawful exercise of discretion by the prison governor. The extent of the ‘basic’ association to which the inmate would be entitled was, subject to the performance of the Secretary of State’s statutory duty, in the discretion of the governor of the institution, but the existence of that discretion did not remove from association its quality as a personal right.  Further, a prisoner’s rights under Arts 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights would not be engaged by disciplinary proceedings before a prison governor unless the punishment imposed reached a certain level of seriousness.