Republican News · Thursday 1 November 2001

Terrorism Act breaches human rights

Sinn Féin Assembly Human Rights spokesperson, Pat McNamee, commenting on the latest statistics on the operation of the Terrorism Act 2000, says the legislation violates both international and European human rights standards.

"The Terrorism Act violates many articles under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Charter on Human Rights," said the Newry and Armagh Assembly member. "Many of the provisions within the Act are wide open to abuse by the RUC and the Act also fails to provide proper safeguards against such abuse.

"The creation of permanent distinctions in the system of arrest, detention and prosecution may violate the right to be equal before the courts. Such violations of international human rights standards are compounded by the use of non-jury Diplock Courts in the Six Counties.

"In particular, there has been widespread abuse of the wide-ranging powers of arrest, the denial of access to a lawyer and the shifting of the burden of proof from the prosecution to the accused. Thousands of people arrested under the powers of arrest stemming from the emergency legislation that the Terrorism Act is derived from have been released without charge. This is an indication of its widespread abuse for intelligence gathering purposes.

"There is a specific commitment from the British government in the Good Friday Agreement to repeal repressive legislation. It is now time for it to live up to these commitments as we attempt to move the entire peace process significantly forward."