Civil liberties - new material (79)
01 January 2011
BLACKLISTED: Targeted sanctions, pre-emptive security and fundamental rights, Gavin Sullivan and Ben Hayes. European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, December 2010, pp. 128. This report condemns the Kafkaesque world of UN and EU terrorist lists. As Martin Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, writes in the foreword: “This report...is important because of its comprehensive coverage of the origins and development of the UN and European Union terrorist lists, their impacts, their political significance and the way in which they have been challenged in national and regional courts. Most importantly, it provides a European perspective to an international human rights problem that originates at the UN Headquarters in New York. Its conclusions concerning a reform of the European lists deserve attention by every policy maker. There is a fundamental need for a broader public debate concerning the future of terrorist listings.”: http://www.ecchr.eu/news_details.402/items/new-report-blacklisted-targeted-sanctions-preemptive-security-and-fundamental-rights.html
The price is wrong: the cost of CCTV surveillance in the United Kingdom, Alex Deane and Daniel Hamilton. Big Brother Watch 30.11.10, pp. 23. This report analyses data from 336 UK local authorities who responded to Big Brother Watch‘s Freedom of Information request on the cost of installing and operating CCTV cameras. These authorities spent £314 million in the 2007 to 2010 period with Birmingham Council topping the spending list due to “Project Champion”, the then Labour government’s plan to use more than 200 CCTV Cameras to surveil two Muslim areas in Birmingham:
http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/files/big-brother-watch-report---price-is-wrong-29-11-10-final.pdf
The UK ban on the PKK: persecuting the Kurds, Campaign against Criminalising Communities. Briefing 4, November 2010, pp. 4. This briefing paper describes the UK government’s attempts to deter protests by migrant communities that have fled oppressive regimes, such as Kurds. It also describes the UK’s complicity in Turkish terror against its Kurdish communities in their struggle for self-determination. Available as a free download at: http://campacc.org.uk/uploads/kurds.pdf
Freedom of speech on campus: rights and responsibilities in UK universities. Universities UK February 2011, pp. 67 (ISBN 978-1-84036-251-0). This report considers universities and academic freedom and freedom of speech, “and the constraints surrounding these freedoms”, after comments by the director of MI5 and Prime Minister, David Cameron. The Working Group behind this report came into existence in 2009, and “Islamic radicalisation” is it focus, although it also includes animal rights protests and the far right. As a sign of the times, it is strong on the wide-ranging responsibilities of universities, which need “to ensure that potentially aberrant behaviour is challenged and communicated to the police where appropriate.” The National Union of Students, which was part of the working group, has criticised the report’s “unhelpful and unrealistic” case studies and defends its support for a grassroots “No Platform” policy for racists and fascists “as both morally desirable and legally possible”. Available as a free download at: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/uk-freedom-of-speech-on-campus.pdf
No Fixed Abode: the housing struggle for young people leaving custody in England, Jane Glover and Naomi Clewett. Barnardo’s 2011, pp. 58. Report finds: “Children as young as 13 are being released from custody into unsuitable and unsafe housing, leaving them vulnerable to reoffending at huge cost to themselves, society and the Exchequer.” It calls for a cross-government action plan and dedicated senior officials from the Justice Ministry, Departments for Education and Communities and Local Government to ensure that suitable accommodation for young people leaving custody is an issue of urgent priority: http://www.barnardos.org.uk/news_and_events/media_centre/press_releases.htm?ref=66936