A court challenge by human-rights advocates claiming Canadian troops are violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when they transfer detainees in Afghanistan has grounds to continue, a Federal Court judge ruled Monday.

It is believed to be the first time a court has been asked to rule whether the Charter applies to Canadian troops when they are serving abroad.

Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association claim in the lawsuit that the Canadian Forces do not take sufficient care to ensure that prisoners detained in Afghanistan will be safe from mistreatment after they're handed over to Afghan authorities. The groups argue the practice violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The government announced it had signed a new Canada-Afghanistan Detainee Agreement on May 3, 2007, after the lawsuit was filed, replacing the original detainee agreement. The government said the new agreement allows Canadian personnel to have access to detainees after they are transferred to Afghan custody, and requires approval by Canada before anyone originally detained by Canadian troops is transferred to a third country.

Lawyers for the Conservative government argued the case should be thrown out of court because the issues are political, not judicial. The lawyers also said the two groups lacked legal standing to mount the challenge and the case should be thrown out because it has no chance of succeeding.

Federal Court Justice Anne Mactavish dismissed the government's arguments, allowing the case to continue. She said both Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association satisfied the criteria to be granted public interest standing, which allows them to pursue the matter.

"While a number of the issues raised by the case are novel, I cannot say that they are clearly bereft of any chance of success," Mactavish said.

She stressed that hers was not a decision on any of the issues in the case, just that the lawsuit should proceed.

Amir Attaran, a University of Ottawa law professor acting as co-counsel for the human rights groups, was pleased with the ruling.

"Basically, the government wanted to strike the case altogether," he said. "I called it the Swiss Army knife of motions, because it had a little bit of everything.… Absolutely every way they could think of to possibly get this thrown out of court, they tried — and they lost on every single one."

The groups' next step is to seek an injunction barring the Canadian Forces from transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities until the case is decided, Attaran said. An original request to stop the transfers was put on hold when the second detainee agreement was signed.

The groups are requesting the injunction now because of continued allegations of mistreatment, Attaran said.

The Justice Department has not yet commented on whether the government will appeal the judgment.

With files from the Canadian Press