Amnesty calls for sweeping changes to UK terror laws
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, Sept 6, IRNA -- Amnesty International has written to the UK government to ensure that a promised review of counter-terrorism and security powers will recommend immediate reform of measures that have seriously undermined human rights in the last decade.
In a 17-page submission to the Home Office, the London-based human right group called for an end to the “control orders” regime and a reduction in current 28-day period for which people suspected of involvement in terrorism can be held without charge.
The government must also abandon so-called “diplomatic assurance” deals in the deportation of foreign nationals and repeal the police’s sweeping “stop and search” powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, it said.
“Protecting the public from terrorism is a vital concern for any government but in the last 10 years there’s been a serious overreaction that’s badly damaged human rights in this country,” said head of Amnesty’s UK Policy and Government Affairs Jeremy Croft.
“Scrapping the worst measures will signal that the UK is prepared to play its part in defending human rights as well as countering terrorism. A move in this direction will bolster support for human rights globally as well as in Britain,” Croft said.
He said that he hoped the announcement by Home Secretary Teresa May to review terrorism laws enacted in the past 10 years will “put the UK back on the right road on human rights.”
In its submission, Amnesty warned that the pledged review was “relatively limited in scope” and was excluding such controversial issues as “overly vague and broad” the definitions of terrorism used in various terrorism-related offences.
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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 262682
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