Earlier this month, a British court ruled Defective military equipment 'is a breach of human rights':

The Government suffered a landmark legal defeat yesterday when a High Court judge ruled that sending soldiers to war with defective equipment could be a breach of their human rights. Mr Justice Collins dismissed the Ministry of Defence argument that it was "impossible" to extend the tenets of the Human Rights Act to troops on active duty. His decision is likely to have significant implications on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and pave the way for legal action by bereaved families of soldiers.
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The Government said it would appeal against the ruling on human rights.
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The High Court case followed representations made by MoD lawyers after the inquest into Private Jason Smith, a Territorial Army soldier who died of heatstroke in Iraq.

Pte Smith, who joined the TA in October 1992, was sent to Basra in June 2003 and two months later fell ill in temperatures of 60C (140F) while based at the Al Amara stadium, southern Iraq. Andrew Walker, the assistant deputy coroner for Oxfordshire, recorded in a November 2006 verdict that 32-year-old Pte Smith's death was "caused by a serious failure to recognise and take appropriate steps to address the difficulty that he had in adjusting to the climate".
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Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said: "Too often human rights are grossly misrepresented as belonging only to convicted criminals when the truth is that human rights protect us all.

"This decision makes clear that it is not just the military covenant that protects our forces all over the world. Their fundamental right to dignity and fair treatment must be safeguarded as well."

The Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, Nick Harvey, said: "This shattering ruling for Des Browne will hopefully at last wake the Government up to equipment shortages which threaten the lives of our troops. That a judge feels he must even raise the issue of soldiers' human rights is a damning indictment of all the avoidable deaths that have occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan due to faulty or unavailable kit."

The shadow Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, said: "It should not take a court ruling for the Government to realise it has a responsibility and a moral obligation to ensure that when it sends troops into harm's way, they are the best trained and best equipped in the world. It is shameful the Defence Secretary tried to gag coroners who have been critical of his government's abysmal stewardship of our armed forces."

Mr Browne said different rulings on the applicability of Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention on Human Rights were "inconsistent" and the Ministry of Defence was appealing against the ruling to obtain "clarity" on what they mean. The Defence Secretary continued: "We have come a long way recently in response to the changing environments both in Iraq and Afghanistan in terms of development of equipment and deployment of equipment.

"People should be reassured that our troops are very well equipped.

"So this criticism is a dated criticism from a different time and is not applicable to the troops that are currently deployed."