British Peacekeepers in Ukraine Face Human Rights Law Challenge

Defence Secretary rejects ECHR exemption despite fears of Russian 'lawfare' against UK troops

British peacekeeping troops sent to Ukraine could face prosecution under human rights laws, The Telegraph (28/4/25) reports.

Defence Secretary John Healey has rejected calls to exempt UK forces from the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), despite warnings that Russian forces could target British troops through legal action.

In a letter seen by The Telegraph, Healey claimed the British contingent would not be a fighting force but rather provide training to the Ukrainians.

Shadow Defence Secretary James Cartlidge had urged Healey to consider an ECHR derogation for peacekeeping troops, warning that Russia could exploit the human rights framework to undermine UK forces. Under such a scenario, Russian forces could engineer confrontations and then pursue human rights cases through London courts.

Healey dismissed any concerns and insisted that abiding by the convention would not “prevent us from achieving our objectives”.

“We expect the highest standards of our service personnel and rightly hold them to account if they fall short of these expectations,” Healey wrote.

“Where the UK undertakes military action it complies fully with UK and international law.

“We will give due consideration to the provisions of the ECHR as we develop the details of the coalition of the willing deployment.”

“Abiding by the ECHR … will not prevent us from achieving our objectives.

However, military experts note significant practical challenges in Healey's position: to comply with the ECHR, each individual soldier must have their orders vetted by their personal legal counsel, as Article 2 Inquiries assess soldiers' actions on an individual basis. This creates an unprecedented operational challenge, because any lawyer would advise against accepting orders that might involve discharging weapons, since knowingly carrying and using firearms would likely violate ECHR compliance.