Application of Articles 8 and 9 ECHR to exhumation from consecrated ground, and changes to procedure for exhumation

Background

Prior to considering the recent proceedings in Re Putney Vale Cemetery [2015] Southwark Cons Ct, Philip Petchey Ch, it is necessary to revisit the earlier proceedings, concerning some members of the same Vietnamese Buddhist family, in Re Putney Vale Cemetery [2014] Southwark Cons Ct, Philip Petchey Ch, on which we reported on 14 August 2014.

These earlier proceedings involved the following family members:

• Mr Kiet Kham Hong: the Petitioner;
• Thuan Kiet Hong: Brother of the Petitioner, who died in an accident in 1991, and whose cremated remains were not interred at that time;
• Thuc-Bich Tran: the Petitioner’s Grandmother, who died in 1993 and whose body was buried in the consecrated part of Putney Vale Cemetery;
• Vinh Hong: Father of the Petitioner, who died on 28 June 2014. His body was buried 16 July 2014, in a coffin, also containing the ashes of Thuan Kiet Hong, in the plot where Thuc-Bich Tran had been interred.

Although Vietnamese Buddhist monks had made the arrangements for the funeral of his father and the interment of his brother’s ashes, his family subsequently informed him that according to Chinese Buddhist tradition, those arrangements were inappropriate: Continue reading →