Human rights court rules against UK's DNA database

05 December 2008

The European Court of human rights has ruled that the UK's database of DNA profiles violates the human right to privacy, and will need modifications in order to ensure respect for people's personal lives.

The UK has assembled one of the largest databases of DNA in the world, with data and profiles of over 4.4 million people, representing around six per cent of the country's population.

The database includes over a million people who have never been convicted of an offence, according to the charity GeneWatch UK. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is a genetic code unique to every individual that is present in each cell of the human body. Saliva, blood, semen and sweat are usually used by law enforcement to match against DNA profiles from the database to identify suspects.

The court said that the all encompassing nature of keeping data on individuals did not strike a ''fair balance'' the ''competing public and private interests.'' The ruling was handed down by the 17-judge Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg court.

The ruling has come in lawsuits that were filed in 2004 by two residents of Sheffield in the UK. Their applications for the destruction of their DNA samples, fingerprints and profiles were rejected, after they were cleared of crimes in separate cases.

Lawyers for the both plaintiffs had argued that since they were not convicted, the police should not have retained samples in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights. Michael Marper was released in a case of harassment. The second plaintiff was referred to as 'S' as he was a minor when arrested, and was acquitted of attempted robbery charges. The European court also awarded €42,000 to the two plaintiffs for expenses in bringing the complaints.