The UK under fire on Human Rights

Posted by Andrew Adams on February 17, 2009
Filed Under Civil liberties, Human rights, New Labour, Politics |

Following its recent embarrassment over the supression of intelligence relating to the treatment of Guantanamo detainee Binyam Mohamed the government is now coming under fire from all sides over its record on human rights, civil liberties and torture.

Firstly, the UK has received strong criticism from the International Commission of Jurists for undermining international law and human rights in the name of the “war on terror”.

Singling out the UK’s use of a wide range of counterterrorism laws, the report highlights allegations of complicity in torture and intelligence sharing, the practice of rendition, and the system of control orders, as areas of particular concern.

“We have been shocked by the extent of the damage done over the past seven years by excessive or abusive counterterrorism measures,” said Justice Arthur Chaskalson, former president of the South African constitutional court, who headed the study.

Former head of MI5 Stella Rimington has also voiced similar concerns, accusing the government of exploiting the public’s concern over terrorism in order to undermine civil liberties

The 73-year-old said: “Since I have retired I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people’s privacy.

“It would be better that the Government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state.”

Meanwhile, former Lord Bingham, the former law lord, complains of the extent of surveillance to which the British people are subject

It is in this context that we must review a development that is a cause of profound unease to many. It has recently been described, in unrhetorical but chilling terms, by the House of Lords select committee on the constitution in its recent report on Surveillance, Citizens and the State: “Successive UK governments have gradually constructed one of the most extensive and technologically advanced surveillance systems in the world … The expansion in the use of surveillance represents one of the most significant changes in the life of the nation since the end of the second world war.”

He also makes a very good defence of the role of the judiciary in defending the British people from abuses of power by their elected representatives, something Jack Straw could take note of.

Such warnings are extremely timely, especially given that the extent of British complicity in the abuse and torture of terrorist suspects in Pakistan, including Binyam Mohamed, is now coming to light.

David Milliband spoke some very fine words recently on the subject of upholding our values and the rule of law.

We must respond to terrorism by championing the rule of law, not subordinating it, for it is the cornerstone of the democratic society. We must uphold our commitments to human rights and civil liberties at home and abroad.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt at the time and took him seriously when others were more sceptical, but those words are sounding rather hollow now.

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