Civil liberties - new material (74)
01 January 2009
Too far and too fast – the laws that make everyone a suspect, Richard Thomas interviewed by Alexi Mostrous and Richard Ford. The Times 27.2.09, pp. 18-19. Interview with the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, in which he warns once again that the government’s “creeping surveillance” risks turning everybody into a suspect. He argues that monitoring the behaviour of millions of Britons risks hardwiring surveillance into the country’s way of life: “Our society is based on liberty and democracy. I do not want to see excessive surveillance hardwired into British society.” Thomas criticises Section 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill (which would allow mass data sharing between government departments and the private sector) and says that proposals to database information currently held by internet service providers and telephone companies’would be a step too far.”
Commentary on the Fourth Periodic Report of the Netherlands on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).NJCM, August 2008 pp 42. In advance of an inquiry by the Human Rights Committee (HRC) of the UN in Geneva, fourteen Dutch NGOs led by the Dutch section of the International Commission of Jurists (NJCM) commented on the human rights situation in the Netherlands. In the report the NGOs criticise the lack of protection of children, the asylum procedures and discrimination on the basis of sexual preference, handicap or chronic illness. The HRC monitors the compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: http://www.njcm.nl/site/uploads/download/276
Protecting Individual Privacy in the Struggle against Terrorists: a framework for program assessment, Committee on Technical and Privacy Dimensions of Information for Terrorism Prevention and Other National Goals. US National Research Council (National Academies Press, Washington DC, USA) 2008, pp. 252 (ISBN 978-0-309-12488- 1). This report, which was commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security and the National Science Foundation, examines the technical effectiveness and implications for civil liberties of data mining and behavioural surveillance techniques. It finds that: “Modern data collection and analysis techniques have had remarkable success in solving information-related problems in the commercial sector; for example, they have been successfully applied to detect consumer fraud.
But such highly automated tools and techniques cannot be easily applied to the much more difficult problem of detecting and preempting a terrorist attack, and success in doing so may not be possible at all. Success, if it is indeed achievable, will require a determined research and development effort focused on this particular problem” (p. 2): http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12452&page=R17
Away from Home: Protecting and supporting children on the move. Save the Children, November 2008, pp 30. Drawing on the experiences of children themselves, Away from Home provides insights into why children move and the risks they face. It looks at how policymakers and service-providers can support children who are on the move, including tackling the worst forms of children’s movement and exploitation. It argues that child protection systems and other services, such as migration policies, need to be adapted so that they work for children on the move.