Anti-terror tactics 'weaken law'

Anti-terror tactics 'weaken law'

news.bbc.co.uk

The UK and the US have "actively undermined" international law in the way they fight terrorism, a report by judges and lawyers has said.

The International Commission of Jurists carried out a three-year global study.

Gains made in the previous century to a shared consensus on human rights have been immensely damaged over the last seven years, it concluded.

The report will make uncomfortable reading for many in governments on both sides of the Atlantic.

After a painstaking study carried out over three years in several countries, the panel of eminent lawyers and judges have concluded that the framework of international law that existed before the 9/11 attacks was robust and effective.

Lack of safeguards

But now, it says, it is being actively undermined by many states and that liberal democracies like the US and the UK have led that undermining.

Many of the measures used to fight terrorism, says the report, are illegal and counter-productive.

The panellists express concern at the lack of adequate safeguards in the use of control orders, the weakness of diplomatic assurances in relation to deportations and at what the report calls "excessive detention without charge".

(visit the link for the full news article)

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* Copy the exact headline of the story into the headline field, don't make one up or sensationalize it. Submissions with inaccurate, biased or otherwise deceptive headlines may be moved, closed or deleted.

[edit on 2/16/2009 by semperfortis]

I can't say I'm the least bit surprised by this result, when you consider the furore over the CIA renditions, and the torture in foreign prisons of terrorist suspects.

There is a war being fought and if International Law gets in the way then you have to undermine it if you want to win the war.
Does International Law need to be changed or even got rid of?



news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 2/16/2009 by semperfortis]

[edit on 16-2-2009 by tangoGorilla]

Mod Edit: Review This Link: Instructions for the Breaking News Forums

* Copy the exact headline of the story into the headline field, don't make one up or sensatonalize it. Submissions with inaccurate, biased or otherwise deceptive headlines may be moved, closed or deleted.

[edit on 2/16/2009 by semperfortis]

The title was US and UK undermine international law, Semper

I took it from the first sentence of the news report, so I think it's unfair to state that I made up a title to sensationalize the reporting of it.

It starts:
The UK and the US have "actively undermined" international law in the way they fight terrorism, a report by judges and lawyers has said.

So take it back and change the title it's censureship just cause you don't like the tone of it.



[edit on 16-2-2009 by tangoGorilla]