A permanent "state of emergency"
01 August 2001
The attacks in the USA on 11 September have led to an unprecedented assault on civil liberties and democratic standards. In the US, the European Union and EU member states new laws are being rushed through to combat "terrorism". If the new measures were limited to dealing with terrorism that would be understandable but they are not. Many of the measures being undertaken have nothing to do with terrorism. What they are is the adoption of the most extreme demands of the law enforcement agencies and the security and intelligence services.
The trend to put the demands of law enforcement agencies above those of people's rights and basic democratic standards has been evident in the EU for several years, well before 11 September. What 11 September has done is that governments have now given the green light to these authoritarian instincts. 11 September has bequeathed the EU and its member states with the mentality of a permanent "state of emergency". The longer this prevails the deeper and more dangerous will be the infringement of rights and liberties and of fundamental democratic standards (like freedom of expression, freedom of movement and the right to protest).
Amongst the first to be affected are refugees and asylum-seekers at the EU borders, airports, sea-links and visa controls where discretionary powers are being applied to the full. Meanwhile across the EU they are the target of racist attacks. The emerging ideology being that greater checks on entry will mean fewer potential terrorists coming in. The Council of the European Union has called for an urgent review of "safeguarding internal security and complying with international protection obligations and instruments" a likely reference to the 1951 Geneva Convention and the effect of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The German government wants the EU to go even further and has proposed the creation of a centralised computer EU database of all third country nationals (“foreigners”) resident in the EU. It has also put forward a proposal, backed the by Belgian EU Presidency, to bring together all the national para-military police units to “police” protests (see page 19).
Operational measures and surveillance
Equally dangerous are the new "operational" measures being put in place. A series of data-gathering and exchanges measures are being effected at a stroke and a number of permanent and unaccountable, secret, ad hoc groups have been set up including a “Heads of Security and Intelligence agencies working party”. Another is the EU Police Chiefs Operational Task Force and its sub-groups to deal with public order at EU summits and other international meetings. When Statewatch applied for the agenda of a three-day meeting of the Task Force, held at the end of October, the Council of the European Union refused to supply the document saying at it was not an “EU” body - Statewatch is appealing against this decision on the grounds that it was set up under Recommendation 44 of the EU Tampere Summit Conclusions.
The forces of law `n’ order are also using the situation to press their long-standing demands for the retention of all telecommunications data and for access to it. The demand for the retention of data in the EU has also been called for by President Bush who has written to the European Commission with more thah 40 demands for cooperation on law and order - yet there is no corresponding legal obligation for such data to be retained in the US (even after the far-ranging “US Patriot Act” agreed in October).
In this bulletin there is an overview of post-11 September developments (page 19-23), and features from Norway (page 15) and Germany (page 12).
For up-to-date information and full documentation please see Statewatch's "Observatory in defence of freedom and democracy" on: www.statewatch.org/observatory2.htm