COUNTER-TERRORISM POLICY AND HUMAN RIGHTS (THIRTEENTH REPORT): COUNTER-TERRORISM BILL by Great Britain: Parliament: Joint Committee on Human Rights ( 9780104013571 )

Item Details

Title:

COUNTER-TERRORISM POLICY AND HUMAN RIGHTS (THIRTEENTH REPORT): COUNTER-TERRORISM BILL
THIRTIETH REPORT OF SESSION 2007-08 - REPORT, TOGETHER WITH FORMAL MINUTES

By:

Great Britain: Parliament: Joint Committee on Human Rights

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£12.00
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ISBN 10:

0104013575

ISBN 13:

9780104013571

Publisher:

TSO

Pub. date:

13 October, 2008

Series:

HL Session 2007-08, 172

Pages:

Synopsis:

This is the Committee's thirteenth report on aspects of the Government's counter-terrorism strategy since the 2005 election and the third to deal specifically with the Counter-Terrorism Bill. The main purpose of the report is to draw together into one place the recommendations and proposed amendments to the Bill which the Committee consider to be most significant and to summarize the reasons for it's recommendations.The Committee also draw attention to criticisms of the UK's counter-terrorism law and policy in recent reports by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the UN Human Rights Committee and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.The Committee reaffirms it's earlier conclusions that it has not seen any evidence which demonstrates that the level of threat from terrorism is growing. The Committee calls on Government to provide Parliament with the relevant evidence.The Committee fails to see how the Government can plausibly claim that there is a pressing need to extend further the maximum period of pre-charge detention when the existing power to detain beyond 14 days is so rarely used and had not been used for well over a year. The Secretary of State's power to extend the maximum period of pre-charge detention to 42 days is too broad. The proposed safeguards relating to the use of the power are insufficiently strong to meet the human rights concerns which have been raised. There is no need to make any provision for extending the maximum period of pre-charge detention beyond 28 days and, even if there were, the safeguards in the Bill are inadequate.Consequently, the Committee calls on the Government to delete the provisions in the Bill which would extend the maximum period of pre-charge detention for terrorism offenses to 42 days.The Committee pointed out in a previous report that the Government can already derogate from ECHR rights in times of emergency and they explain in more detail how a detailed framework for any future derogation would provide a human rights compliant alternative to the Government's approach in the event that there were a genuine public emergency threatening the life of the nation.In an earlier report the Committee noted that controversial provisions in the Bill relating to coroners' inquests had been put forward without any analysis of their implications for human rights. The Committee find it extremely regrettable that the Government has continued to fail to provide an accessible explanation for its view that the relevant clauses are compatible with Article 2 of the ECHR. The Committee recommends that the provisions should be dropped from the Bill and made subject to proper consultation, in advance of the introduction of the proposed Coroners Bill.The Committee also recommends that the provisions relating to the admissibility of intercept evidence in court should be removed from the Bill until the recommendations of the recent Chilcot Review are implemented.

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