Republican News · Thursday 22 November 2001

Civil Rights: the other victim of the "war against terrorism"

Governments around the world have made use of the events of 11 September, in the name of fighting against "international terrorism", to introduce draconian measures that threaten the basic human rights and civil liberties of their own citizens, and curtail even further those of immigrants and asylum seekers.

In the attempt to build their international coalition, proposals are being considered to increase military sales to countries with a poor human rights record and there is also the danger that governments will ignore human rights violations by their new "allies" in the coalition, and that other human rights crises will slip way down the agenda of the international community and the world's mainstream media.

The following are some examples of these new measures and actions undertaken by different governments.

British Anti-Terrorism Bill

The British Anti-Terrorism Bill was finally published on Monday 12 November, after weeks of hints, partial revelations and spin. It is being pushed as emergency legislation and Blair's government want it to be rushed through Parliament so as to be law by Christmas. David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, let everyone know that to oppose the Bill is evidence of support for terrorism. On Monday, 19 November, he denied he was riding roughshod over democracy by giving MPs just three days to debate the 124-clause bill.

The British Council for Civil Liberties, better known as Liberty, has expressed its concerns about the new "terrorism measures". Liberty points out that of the 7,000 people detained in Britain (i.e. not including the north of Ireland) under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, "the vast majority have been released without charge and only a tiny fraction have ever been charged with anything remotely resembling terrorism".

"The anti-terrorism laws in this country have led to some of the worst human rights abuses in this country over the last 30 years, contributed to miscarriages of justice and have led to the unnecessary detention of thousands of innocent people, mainly Irish," it said.

The British Civil rights organisation is also "particularly concerned to see a number of measures smuggled into this Bill which either have nothing to do with terrorism or the events of 11 September or are very much more wide-ranging in their remit".

Some of the most dangerous measures proposed will give the authorities the power to intern on the basis of suspicion, to imprison not on the basis of what a person has done but on what some intelligence expert thinks they might do.

Some of the measures refer to the disclosure of information and allow personal and private information to be obtained by the police and others without any controls, checks or safeguards. It will allow the police to trawl through the files held by other government departments.

The police will not need reasonable suspicion that the file contains evidence of a crime, merely that it is useful in an investigation. The police will not need to go to a court magistrate for authorisation and they will be able to access files without subsequent checks or audits. The subjects of these investigations are unlikely ever to be told the police have rifled through their files and there will be no real remedy if the police are mistaken, over-zealous or plain malicious.

From the point of view of immigration and asylum policies, legislation already exists allowing for the deportation of non-British citizens whose presence in the country is "not conducive to the public good" (including on grounds of national security). But some of the measures underlined in the anti-terrorist legislation are aimed at bringing back internment, this time for unwanted immigrants. "It was tried in Northern Ireland and the consequence of intelligence being wrong was that hundreds of innocent nationalists were locked up," says Liberty. "It was tried more recently during the Gulf War, when again innocent people were locked up for no good reasons. This time those interned are likely all to be Moslems."

In deciding who to detain, the British authorities will have to be heavily dependant upon the intelligence of foreign governments, some of them lacking in democratic and human rights credentials, as a basis for suspicion and detention of suspects, who may well be dissidents and/or asylum seekers.

Police Powers are greatly broadened. The provisions in this new Bill extend the circumstances under which fingerprints can be taken and this will lead to substantial numbers of people who have been mistakenly arrested having their fingerprints kept.

The British government is telling those companies that provide telephone and communication systems that they need to keep communications information for long periods just in case that information might be helpful in the investigation of terrorist offences. To require this information to be stored will violate the data protection principle and in effect means that millions of unwitting users of communications systems, including e-mail and the internet, will have their private communications information stored on the off chance that it might be of use in the future.

US: no more "land of freedom"

In an article published in November 2001 in Le Monde Diplomatique, Michael Ratner - lawyer, professor at Columbia University, New York, and vice-president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, which defends civil and constitutional rights and is based in New York - has criticised the erosion of human rights in the US post 11 September.

Ratner explains how the new atmosphere created by government and media after the 11 September events has translated into an acceptance by the general public and their representatives of the erosion of fundamental rights: "The government has made a tripartite plan to eradicate terrorism in the US: President George W Bush has created a new cabinet-level Homeland Defence Office; thousands are under arrest or being interrogated; and Congress is enacting new laws that will grant the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other intelligence agencies vast new powers to wiretap and spy on people in the US."

Ratner describes how the Homeland Defence Office, set up on 20 September, is to gather intelligence, coordinate anti-terrorism efforts and take precautions to prevent and respond to terrorism. "People are worried that it will become a super spy agency and that the military will play a role in domestic law enforcement," he said.

The threat of interment has also taken hold on the US. Attorney General John Ashcroft has introduced new legislation focused on non-citizens, whether permanent residents, students, temporary workers or tourists. The new law allows arrested aliens to be held without charges for a "reasonable time", presumably months or longer - previously, an 'alien' could only be held for 48 hours before being charged. The FBI has carried out massive detentions and investigations of individuals suspected of terrorist connections. More than 700 have been arrested. Most are non-citizens of Middle Eastern descent. "Many were held for days without access to lawyers or knowledge of the charges; most are still in detention," states Ratner.

Ratner points out the proposed legislation makes things even worse for aliens, as it would permit "mandatory detention" of aliens certified by the Attorney General as "suspected terrorists". These could include aliens involved in barroom brawls or those who have just given humanitarian assistance to organisations not favoured by the US.

Current law permits the deportation of aliens who support terrorist activity; whereas the proposed law would make aliens deportable for almost any association with a "terrorist organisation", a broad and open-ended term.

Under the new law, a special secret court made up of federal judges nominated for life and selected by the department of justice to sit behind closed doors on espionage cases will have the power to authorise wiretaps and secret searches of homes in criminal cases not just to gather foreign intelligence. "Widespread reading of e-mail will be allowed, even before the recipient opens it. Thousands of exchanges will be listened to or read that have nothing to do with the suspect or any crime," explains Ratner in his article. "The new legislation expands investigative and prosecutorial power, including wider use of undercover agents to infiltrate organisations, longer jail sentences and lifetime supervision for some who have served their sentences, more crimes that can receive the death penalty and longer statutes of limitations for prosecuting crimes. Another provision of the bill makes it a crime for a person to fail to notify the FBI if he has "reasonable grounds to believe" that someone is about to commit a terrorist offence. The language of this provision is so vague that anyone, however innocent, with any connection to anyone suspected of being a terrorist can be prosecuted.

"Officials at the Senate judicial committee and the Department of Justice are also looking at the possibility of creating a military tribunal to judge those involved in terrorist attacks behind closed doors, with limited access to defence. Overall, the new legislation is one of the most sweeping assaults on liberties in the last 50 years. It is unlikely to make us more secure; it is certain to make us less free."

European Union: more control and fewer rights

The September attacks have been used by some European Union member states to press ahead with restrictive legislation that was already on the agenda, says Statewatch - an independent group of researchers, journalists, lawyers, academics and community activists, with contributors from 12 European states - in their report, 'EU anti-terrorism action plan: legislative measures in justice and home affairs policy'.

Out of eleven measures discussed at the special EU Council of Justice and Home Affairs ministers on terrorism, six had already been proposed before 11 September and four were firmly on the EU's agenda. The only genuinely new 'anti terrorism' measure is the commitment to examine immigration and asylum legislation.

The Framework Decision on Terrorism is the only measure that is specifically directed at 'terrorism'. Initial discussions suggest that the definition of terrorist activities could be so broad that it may be used against any public or private form of dissent against the establishment, as some states are proposing that the measures should be applied to demonstrators at international summits and "urban violence".

On 23 September, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, said that the results of the meeting of European Justice and Home Affairs ministers could signal a further erosion of civil liberties on the continent.

A number of proposals have raised important civil liberties and human rights issues of concern. For example, European Arrest Warrants (EAWs) will replace all extradition procedures in the EU but will also remove some of the legal and procedural safeguards currently protecting people being sought by other states. EAWs raise constitutional issues for some member states in regard to the possible extradition of their own nationals, and several states are opposed to the removal of the dual criminality requirement (that the offence for which extradition is being sought is recognised and penalised by both states). The agenda is unbalanced in favour of facilitating the free movement of investigations and prosecutions ahead of the need to guarantee the fundamental rights of suspects and defendants.

A proposed mechanism for freezing suspected terrorist organisations' assets has been negotiated in secrecy, with no drafts available to the public since February 2001. It was originally drafted to include money laundering, drugs trafficking, EC budget fraud, counterfeiting of the euro, corruption and trafficking of human beings, but it seems to have been amended to include terrorism. It is heavily unbalanced in favour of the prosecuting state and is replacing the assumption of innocence with an obligation on suspects to prove to the authorities in another country that their assets were acquire lawfully. A "freezing certificate" is issued by the "requesting state". It contains no substantive evidence or grounds for suspicion. As long as the certificate has been filled in correctly, the requested state must enforce the order.

The European Union is also planning to legitimise the ongoing surveillance of everyday political activity, with no limits or data protection.

Around the world: Undermining human rights

New legislative, procedural and other initiatives have sprouting up all around the world using the justification of "war against international terrorism" and they are causing great concern to human rights activists. Amnesty International points out that "governments have a responsibility to ensure the safety of their citizens, but measures taken must not undermine fundamental human rights standards. It appears that some of the initiatives currently being discussed or implemented may be used to curb basic human rights and to suppress internal opposition."

In Russia, the Justice minister proposed amendments to national laws in order to strengthen the "fight against terrorism". These amendments include the right of law enforcement authorities to detain people suspected of having links with terrorist and organized crime for up to 30 days without charge and without access to a lawyer.

The Russian federation is also discussing the possibility of using the worldwide "war against terrorism" to solve the Chechen question. Several government officials have claimed that Osama Bin Laden's organisation trained Chechen fighters.

Amnesty International has warned that the Chinese authorities may use the events in the USA to further increase their harsh suppression of Muslim ethnic groups accused of being "separatists", "terrorist" or "religious extremists" in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous region in the northwest of the country. The authorities in China make little distinction between "terrorist" and "separatist" activities. "Such a climate and response may aggravate the already dismal human rights situation in the region and lead to an increase in the widespread human rights violations targeted particularly at the predominantly Muslim ethnic Uighurs. There may also possibly be renewed government action against suspected "separatists" in Tibet, says Amnesty.

In Turkey, suspected members of the armed opposition group Hizbulla (not relation to the organisation based in Lebanon) have recently been detained arbitrarily and tortured. There are fears that such abuses will increase in the current climate.

Amnesty International is also concerned that the Uzbek government may use the current climate as an opportunity to increase its suppression of any manifestation of perceived Islamic opposition with greater impunity. Thousands of alleged supporters of banned Islamic opposition parties or movements, including members of their families, have been detained or sentenced to long terms of imprisonment in Uzbekistan in recent years.

In many countries, Muslims and people of Middle Eastern origin have been detained on suspicion of links with Osama Bin Laden's al Qaeda network. In several countries in the Americas, including Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay, people have been detained or suspects are being sought on suspicion of links with Bin Laden. Amnesty is concerned that some may be victims of arbitrary detention and ill treatment.

For more information, go to www.statewatch.org