A legal team has been denied access to a school pupil database due to a potential violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Following a violent attack on a pupil, 14 people were convicted and the victim's lawyers now hope to prove the attack was racially motivated and that the school failed to prevent it from happening. Mr Justice Nicol refused to allow access to an electronic database containing previous misbehaviour of pupils believed to have carried out the attack in 2007 as this would violate the children’s human rights and any interference with their private lives would not be proportionate to the lawsuit’s aim. In addressing the various issues, the court considered the “proportionality of the interference with …the rights of the individual pupils.” This issue will be of particular interest to those making decisions whether to disclose personal data or not. The trial will take place in October. For the full article, go to: http://www.out-law.com/default.aspx?page=10056
(08/06/09)