Following the inquest, the families of McCann, Savage, and Farrell applied to the European Commission of Human Rights for an opinion on whether the authorities' actions in Gibraltar violated Article 2 (the "right to life") of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR); "This Week" journalists provided statements to the commission regarding the Spanish surveillance operation (the existence of which had been denied by the British authorities at the inquest). The commission's report found no violation of Article 2, but the commission referred the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) for a final decision. The court rejected the families' submission that the British government had conspired to kill the three, but did find a violation of Article 2 in the defective planning and control of the operation. Nevertheless, the applicants' claim for damages was dismissed on the grounds that the trio had been killed while preparing an act of terrorism, though it did order the government to pay the applicants' costs.