Summary
'Counter-Terrorism Policy and Human Rights (Seventeenth Report): Bringing Human Rights Back In' (HL 86 & HC 111) reports on The Joint Committee on Human Rights call for a fundamental, independent review of the necessity for and proportionality of all counter-terrorism measures adopted since September 11 2001. It questions the way that the policy imperatives of national security and public safety have been used to justify squeezing out human rights considerations.
Key issues:
Since September 11 2001 the Government has continuously claimed that there is a 'public emergency threatening the life of the nation'. The Committee questions whether the country has really been in this state for over eight years. c
A permanent state of emergency skews public debate about the justification for rights-limiting counter-terrorism measures. It is unacceptable that the Director General of the Security Service refuses to appear before it to give public evidence despite giving public lectures and media interviews.
The Committee finds the Government's narrow definition of complicity in torture significant and worrying and calls for an urgent independent inquiry into the allegations of complicity in torture. The Government should drop the draft bill still being held in reserve to allow pre-charge detention to be extended to 42 days.
To reduce pre-charge detention use, more work should be done on measures such as bail and the use of intercept evidence.
The Intelligence and Security Committee should become a proper Parliamentary committee with:
- an independent reviewer of counter-terror legislation who reports directly to Parliament not the Government;
- an independent secretariat; and
- independent legal advice.
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