Human rights

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal of three Afghan nationals who had brought proceedings on the basis that they had worked for the defendant secretaries of state as covert human intelligence sources. The Divisional Court had, in earlier proceedings, refused the claimants’ application for further disclosure on the ground that the claims relied on by the claimants had not engaged art 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court of Appeal held that the Divisional Court had erred in that the resolution of the claimants’ public law claim constituted a determination of their “civil rights”, within the meaning of Art 6 of the Convention and, accordingly, fell within the ambit of the Justice and Security Act 2013. Accordingly, the court held that there would have to be such disclosure as was necessary for the claimants to have the fair hearing to which Art 6 entitled them, and that, if such disclosure could not be agreed, the case would be