Sociology

The killers of Baha Mousa and those responsible for the many (alleged) abuses in Iraq have never been brought to justice.

Introduction

The heavy violence endured by the victims as opposed to the minimum sentence in prison or the lack of punishment given to the perpetrators suggest that justice was not served.Baha Mousa was detained by British soldiers; died two days after his arrest. An autopsy examination revealed he suffered asphyxiation and at least 93 injuries to his body, including fractured ribs bruises merging into more insistent abrasions. The director of Civil rights liberty group (Shami Chakrabarti) suggests a few ‘rotten applies’ cannot be scape-goateed for the failures of the British government and high military demand.Unlike Chakrabarti, Aitken fails to address the broader aspect of high ranking soldier’s capacity to brutality. One example is reflected through a video, of Payne verbally abusing and enforcing painful ‘stress positions on the day Mousa died’Therefore, Payne’s punishment of being detained ‘for one year” does not compromise the prolonged abuse; dehumanisation experienced by sufferers.

Due to the British soldiers using UK jurisdiction over the civilians; the death of Mousa was on a British base, it is justified to account the UK courts the appropriate or a lack of appropriate use of martial law; and any violation of rights-should they rise. Mr Hoon suggests the Human Rights Act 1988does not apply to British public authorities acting outside the territory of the UK. However, directly challenging Hoon, in the case of Al SkeiniThe courts held the ECHR applies to British armed forces relating to its powers exercised on foreign land. To consolidate this, UKis a legitimate a member of coalition provisional authority that governed Iraq ( 1 may- 30 June 2004), during the UK’s formal occupation and officers had obligations to apply UK law.

In stark juxtaposition, British court should not be in charge as they are not impartial. 15,000 allegations reported to commanding officers are not referred for trial;IHAT was founded to investigate ‘mountains of claim’before it was shut down.As a matter of fact, Hoon again emphasise the HRA’s articles (2) right to life and (3) right to liberty and security should be incorporated to EU territory only.Theinequality of treatment of members within the ministry of defence suggests the courts aresusceptible to cover up truths, due to the withstanding reputation of army resulting in justice not being served. This makes the view more valid that the International Criminal court are a suitable objective body to investigate the case of Baha Mousa. Despite the “extensive investigation”carried by the MOD, the former Director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald said the lack of responsibility of being criminally charged is “staggering”.Furthermore, although Mousa’s case shone a light on the malpractice of the army officials and army doctors, a further five families had their application for judicial reviews rejected.This implies justice is not accessible as a barrier of eligibility is a concern; since the five shootings occurred outside the Jurisdiction of the UK, Lord Justice Rix and Mr Justice Forbes dismissed the cases.

Dr Keilloh claims he “spotted dried blood” under the nose of Mousa whilst stating to Dr Le-Feuvra that his death was caused by“cardiorespiratory arrest”Additionally, Dr Le-Feuvra surmised, he was asked to write a death certificate based on Dr Kheillo’s diagnosis; couldn’t “remember or understand why he would have done this without witnessing the body.This holds significant value because William recognises the obscure nature of a doctor confirming a death certificate without viewing a body, whilst considering the busy times at the hospital’ is not a valid excuse to not examine a dead body.Therefore, William implies the roles of the doctor, catalysed the injustice by not following the GMC code of conduct of the hypocritic oath.

The attitude of the members representing the British legal system, reflect why justice is not yet received. The highest-ranking soldiers were dismissed from ciriminalliability.Colonal Jorge Mendoca was acquitted for being negligent and his colleagues were not guilty of taking part of abusing prisoners over the 36-hour period. The case by 2007 cost £20m, showing the large extent the country was going to protect the reputation of the army because as Fox indicated: “we must not allow the actions of a few, damage the reputation of the whole”. This narrow view does not take consideration of the ‘exacerbated’ war crimes committed by countless British troops However, after thorough investigation, Fallon was viewed as having inhuman treatment of Iraqi

civilians under the ICC act, as was Crowcroft; Kelvin charged with causing Actual bodily harm, alternatively common assault. Whilst Warrant officer Mark Davies who was neglecting to perform a duty by failing to take steps to ensure that Iraqi civillians were not ill-treated. Nevertheless,although they were recognised for such atrocities, sympathies still lie with them as Theresa May said she wanted an end to the “ vexatious alleggations”,, Tim Collins also stated the allegations were purely farcical made by “ parasitic lawyers”. Whilst Payne’s barrister, Tim owen QC suggested Payne was a“sacrificial lamb”.Nevertheless, Payne admitted Inhumane treatment of Iraqi civilians- a war cime under the international criminal court act 2001.Had it not been for his human guilt, the court would have not accounted him of manslaughter either. Own suggests: two soldiers LSmulski and Robert Livesey were not charged over ill treatment. These two are amongst what Mr Ownes calls a “long list” of those who “escaped” questionable justice. Therefore, they escaped charges’ consequently, justice is not satisfied, for the court is reluctant in holding soldiers accountable. This injustice was mirred through a cynical attitude to Al Matairi’. When the Judge noticed his nervous state in cross examination, he called for a break at 3:15pm. All the QC’s sensed a struggle from Matri’s. However, Mr Cox with high malice spoke “ I was enjoying myself”. The inauspicious comment clearly indicates the lack of justice administered by those in superior positions; the verbal comments is a mere reflection of the physical torture administered by the british soldiers.

In conclusion, today’s rulings mean that anyone in custody abroad by the British army, will be protected by the human rights act. Therefore, they will have the right to life, which Baha Mousa did not have and a right not to be tortured and a right to have access to a fair trial. The times covers the development of Edward Heath’s government who banned “methods of conditioning in 1972”. This essay cannot justify the many people suffering injustice today. Nevertheless, it is conclusive that the lack of punishments of the perpetrators compared to the severity of the crime committed to victims is reasonable to conclude there is a lack of justice received by victims.

Data Sources

Relevant articles for this research will be identified using electronic databases like MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, PubMED, Google scholar. Published articles in these electronic databases will be selected and referred for the research. Keywords like “TRAP”, “TRAP and HUMAN HEALTH”, “IMPACT OF TRAP ON HUMANS”, etc will be used for searching the relevant articles Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trails will be searched for identifying published randomized controlled trail articles for the research (Virgili et al., 2018). The database of National Technical Information Service will be searched for identifying the relevant grey literature on the research topic for minimising the publication baseness along with visiting the British Library. Publication baseness will also be reduced by searching articles relevant for the research in the British Library. Additionally, the reference list of relevant studies may also provide some articles which could be used for this research. Hereby, the secondary sources of information are effective where the researcher can gather a vast knowledge and information related to the air pollution and its impacts on the health condition of the human being. The secondary literature sources include the books, journals, online articles and above mentioned database, which are beneficial for conducting the research successfully.

Inclusion/ Exclusion Criteria

The data sources will only be included in the research if:

• They are about the perspective and prospective studies on the short-term and long-term exposure to traffic related air-pollution.
• They are etiological research on various diseases caused because of exposure to air pollution manly focusing on traffic related air pollution.
• Studies and researches published in English Language will be included in this paper.
• Research will be limited to the studies published from 2015 till date because these studies are most recent and will provided updated data in the light of this research.

The data sources will be excluded if they are:

• Exclusively focused on indoor air pollution exposure
• Documents or editorials not belonging to peer-reviewed journals or conference papers.

Selection of research papers

First Phase: The titles of the papers and their abstracts will be read and checked for the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Third phase: The bibliography of the selected articles will be scrutinised and small hand-picked papers will be evaluated against the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Data extraction

The data pertaining to this research will be retrieved from the selected studies to be tailored to the review questions. Data extraction for this research pertains to the forms which are outlined in the forms of tables (Scott et al., 2018). Three tables will be used for extraction of the data.

Data Analysis

There are two types of data analysis technique, one is quantitative and other is qualitative. The quantitative data analysis technique is utilised for representing the quantitative data and conducting statistical analysis. On the other hand, the qualitative data analysis is related to gathering the secondary sources of information and analyse the collected information on the basis of secondary data, theories and concepts. Data analysis for this research paper will be completed using narrative analysis techniques or statistical analysis techniques which would be dependent on the analysis techniques used in the selected studies. If the data and results are not appropriately formed, narrative approach will be used for analysing the gathered data. One of the main reasons for this could be because of studies being too clinically or methodologically diverse. For systematic review paper, the qualitative data analysis is effective to analyse and evaluate the research topic which is to review the impacts of traffic related air pollution on the human health condition.

Data Analysis Tools

For keeping track of the process of the research the useful data analysis tool are word processing software including Microsoft word and spreadsheets will be used. Data Analysis required for this research paper will be done by using Microsoft excel and spreadsheets where proper track of the collected information and data can be maintained properly and it further helps the researcher to analyse the collected findings critically.

Methods of Quality appraisal

The CONSORT, which is Consolidated Standards of Reporting trials, statements will be used for checking the validity and improving the reporting style of the results of the Randomised controlled trial (RCT) studies which are included in the paper (Boutron et al., 2017). Along with this; CASP, which is Critical Appraisal Skills Program, statements will be used for validation and improved reporting of the results found in the cohort and case controlled studies used for this research (CASP, 2018).

For presenting a clear and transparent report which is comprehensible ay all, PRISMA, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis, the statements will be the guiding styles throughout all the steps of this systematic review paper (Welch et al., 2016). Presenting clear and comprehensible findings and results of the planned research structure, research methods used and findings of the systematic review is the main purpose of using PRISMA statements.

Ethics Analytical Reflection

As the systematic review did not involve primary data analysis or collection, and there was no direct participation of anyone, hence, the systematic review will not have any ethical implication. However, an ethical consideration application will be submitted for the approval of this research, where it is necessary to protect the authenticity of the secondary data. The researcher must fill up the ethical form for the secondary research also, where validity and reliability of the collected data are managed well. The researcher ensures that the gathered data and information are utilised only for the research purpose, not for others. Additionally, the information from the secondary data sources will be cited properly with appropriate reference list to maintain the authenticity of the research.

Limitations

This research will have the following limitations:

• Paper is in only the English Language
• No primary research will be conducted for this research
• Paper published before 2015 will not be included in this research
• Papers selected will be the academic research papers, systematic reviews, journal articles, peer-reviewed articles.

Budget, Logistics for travel and other

Budget is necessary to be predicted and settled to progress in the research paper, where it is possible for the researcher to conduct the study in a systematic manner. I have set a budget of £100 for purchasing research papers. I will not be travelling much for the research apart from travelling to the university library hence; I have not anticipated additional travel expenses.

References

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