Summary
'Counter-Terrorism
Policy and Human Rights: 42 Days’ (HL 23 / HC 156) examines the
Government's intention, as part of its counter-terrorism measures, to increase
the pre-charge detention limit from 28 to 42 days.
The Joint
Committee on Human Rights believes that there is a clear national consensus
that the case for further change has not been made by the Government.
In
the Committee's view a truly consensual approach should lead the Government to
accept that it has failed to build the necessary national consensus for this
very significant interference with the right to liberty and withdraw the
proposal. To proceed with it as detailed by the Home Office calls into question
the Government's commitment to a consensual approach and raises questions of
compatibility with human rights.
The Committee does not accept that the
Government has made the case for extending pre-charge detention beyond the
current limit of 28 days for the following reasons:
- It can find no
clear evidence of likely need in the near future
- Alternatives to
extension do enough, in combination, to protect the public and are much more
proportionate
- The proposed parliamentary mechanism would create a
serious risk of prejudice to the fair trial of suspects
- The existing
judicial safeguards for extensions even up to 28 days are inadequate.
The Report
‘The
Government's Counter-Terrorism Proposals’ (HC 43-I), published in December
2007 by the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, further adds to this
debate.
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