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News Stories that Critique Social and Institutional Practices


Critiques in the News of Social and Institutional Practices that Undermine Critical Thinking and the Emergence of Critical Societies

There are two opposing social tendencies relevant to critical thinking, each supported by multiple driving forces. One is the tendency to social control and intolerance, to conformity and obedience, to fixity of belief and the preservation of traditional myths and delusions, to dogmas and vested interest pronouncements. The other is to critical analysis; to the transformation of beliefs; to questioning, doubt, and reason focused on the improvement of social life and conditions.

Critical thinking can flourish only to the extent that societies support freedom of thought. Significant support for freedom of thought presupposes social stability, open access to information and knowledge and authentic commitment to maintaining that access. Social and institutional practices that undermine the emergence of such societies warrant critique using the best critical thinking.

There are many possible sources for stories documenting social practices that discourage critical thinking and/or the emergence of critical societies. We cannot cover all such stories. Nevertheless, we believe it is our responsibility to highlight practices inconsistent with fair-minded critical thinking. The stories in this section come from Statewatch, a European watchdog research group. Eventually we hope to provide such critiques on events the world over.  

Consistent with the protocols of independent critical thought, the Foundation for Critical Thinking is non- political. The stories are provided here for your analysis and assessment. We believe that, in general, Statewatch is a paradigm of sound scholarship. However, if you judge any story to be inaccurate or misleading, you may challenge the story (citing your reasoning or evidence).

For full contents see: Statewatch News online with analysis, documentation, news in brief and News Archives 2000-ongoing or What's New: which lists all News Online and News in Brief items. The latest 25 lead items are listed below.


November 2011

 EU: REGULATION ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO EU DOCUMENTS: European Parliament: Revised: Report on the proposal for a regulation regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (recast) (23.11.11, pdf). The report was adopted by the Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) by 33 votes in favour, 17 against and 2 abstentions - the rightwing PPE group voted against. It will be considered at a plenary session in December 2011. This replaces the report of: 12 May 2010: Draft EP report(Rapporteur: Michael Cashman MEP)


 EU: DATA PROTECTION: Round Table on Information and Communication Technologies - PART 3 15/11/11 Bureau of European Policy Advisers: Speech of Peter Hustinx, European Data Protection Supervisor, on the revision of the EU: Data Protection Directive (starts 1 min 38 sec in, link)

 EU: Migreurop: A critical Chronology of European migration policies (pdf) produced by Alain Morice (CNRS-Université Paris-Diderot), Migreurop member. This chronology seeks to make it easier to understand European migration and asylum policies through a time-framed comparison of the evolution of the legal framework (columns A1 to A3), the public discourse (B1) and the facts (B2). The table is updated twice a year.

The aim is to picture the way in which the EU policy of closing the borders, apart from the sequence of tragedies that it causes, leads to human rights violations and to absurd situations that are sometimes impossible to manage by the very people who implement them, in an escalation whose effects sometimes appear to escape the grasp of its protagonists, and bargaining among states in which migrants, refugees and displaced people represent a form of exchange currency.

The prospects of this process are the unfair detention, repression and wandering of a growing number of would-be migrants. The chronology suggests that, should this trend continue to prevail in the future, we are heading towards a system enforcing the assignment of compulsory places of residence for third-country nationals, that is, a new version of apartheid on a worldwide scale in which camps will be in charge of keeping at a distance populations that have been rejected on both sides.

Text in French (Link), Spanish (link) and Italian (link)

 GERMANY: UN Committee concerned at failure to investigate rendition and secret detention and the rendition of Khaled El-Masri:Committee against Torture: fifth periodic report of Germany: concluding observations (pdf)

On 25 November, the UN Committee against Torture issued its concluding observations on the compliance of Germany with the international obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The Committee expressed concern at the lack of implementation of the recommendations of the 2009 Parliamentary Inquiry on extraordinary renditions and secret detention complicity. The Committee also expressed at the failure to investigate and provide a remedy for the rendition of Khaled El-Masri.

See also: Denmark: Review of US rendition flights over Greenland “toothless (AI, press statement, link) and Finland must further investigate USA rendition flights (AI statement, link)

 EU: Another EU database for migrants: the European Criminal Records Information System on Third-Country Nationals 

With the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) due to come into operation as of April 2012, the European Commission are now developing the latest in a long list of EU-wide information systems and databases - a European Criminal Records System for Third Country Nationals (ECRIS-TCN). This will be a common European index containing the criminal record information of third-country nationals resident in the EU. As the name suggests, the ECRIS-TCN is essentially an addition to the ECRIS (although information is only exchanged via the ECRIS on EU nationals). It also differs in that it will rely upon a centralised index, rather than the connection of decentralised national registers.

 EU: DATA PROTECTION: EU backs down on 'right to be forgotten' online (euobserver, link) and see: Cloud adoption hampered by cow data protection? (euractiv, link). Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director comments: "The argument that national laws stop the free movement of personal data suggest that this is an EU principle like the freedom of movement. It is a so-called "principle" invented to meet the demands of state agencies and multi-nationals."

The Moroccan and Spanish law enforcement agencies are complicit in the violence against migrants 

- Allegations that they are endangering security and life in the vicinity of Ceuta
- Statement by GADEM [Groupe antiraciste d'accompagnement et de défence des étrangers et migrants] 25/11/2011

 UK: Asylum Aid-UNHCR: Mapping statelessness in the UK (Executive Summary, pdf) and Full-report (pdf)

 Statewatch Analysis: The Arab Spring of “Security made in Germany" (pdf) by Eric Töpfer:

Investigative journalists have revealed a secret mission by the German Federal Police to train border guards in Saudi Arabia. The episode sheds light on the much broader engagement of the German security-industrial complex in arming authoritarian monarchies in the Gulf region.

 German police clear huge sit-in at nuclear protest - German police cleared a sit-in of thousands of protesters attempting to block a shipment of nuclear waste and detained 1,300 people on Sunday, officials said (Daily Telegraph, link) See also:Statewatch Analysis
Policing popular mass protests: The transport of nuclear waste at Goelben, Germany (pdf)

 Statewatch Analysis: Criticism of UK Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures mounts as government retains power to forcibly relocate suspects (pdf) by Max Rowlands:

In another U-turn on civil liberties, the government is introducing emergency legislation that will allow it to impose on terrorist suspects many of the draconian restrictions they had promised to do away with.

 EU-USA: Readout of Secretary Napolitano’s Participation in the US-EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting(Press release, pdf)

 EU-USA PNR DEAL: Commission proposal for a: Council Decision on the signature of the Agreement between the United States of America and the European Union on the use and transfer of Passenger Name Records to the United States Department of Homeland Security (COM 805, pdf). See: Revised EU-US agreement on PNR data still protects only travel companies, not travellers (Identity Project, link)

 EU: Council of the European Union: Qualifications Directive and European Protection Order

- Directive on standards for the qualification of third-country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection, for a uniform status for refugees or for persons eligible for subsidiary protection, and for the content of the protection granted (recast) (pdf). Ready for adoption.

- Position of the Council at first reading with a view to the adoption of a Directive on the European protection order (pdf) Ready for adoption.

- As above Draft Statement of the Council's reasons (pdf)

 EU: FRONTEX: Code of conduct for all persons participating in Frontex activities (pdf). Note Article 20 deals with the carrying of weapons.

 EU-ECJ: Court judgment on Sison case: EU judgment - no compensation for unlawful anti-terrorist sanctions: Full-text of judgment (pdf)

 EU-ECJ: EU law precludes the imposition of an injunction by a national court which requires an internet service provider to install a filtering system with a view to preventing the illegal downloading of files (Press release, pdf) and Full-text of Opinion (pdf)

 EU-ECJ: DATA PROTECTION: Judgment (pdf):

"Article 7(f) of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data must be interpreted as precluding national rules which, in the absence of the data subject’s consent, and in order to allow such processing of that data subject’s personal data as is necessary to pursue a legitimate interest of the data controller or of the third party or parties to whom those data are disclosed, require not only that the fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject be respected, but also that the data should appear in public sources, thereby excluding, in a categorical and generalised way, any processing of data not appearing in such sources."[emphasis added]

 NETHERLANDS: Dutch parliament refuses ACTA secrecy (ACTA Blog, link)

 UK: Drones to patrol the skies above Olympic Stadium (Independent, link). See also: UK to spend half a billion on lethal drones by 2015 (Bureau of Investigative Journalism) and Ten years since first deadly drone strike, industry gathers in London(Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

 France: Criticism of the law on immigration, integration and nationality of 16 July 2011

Cimade, a French migrant support organisation, has produced a critical analysis of the new immigration law entitled "law on immigration, integration and nationality" approved on 16 July 2011, which highlights that its key objectives are "surveillance, detention, expulsion and banning". Its three driving purposes are identified as:

- developing the mechanisms for the detention and surveillance of foreigners
- considerably reducing procedural guarantees to enable the removal of "unwanted" foreigners in contempt for their human rights and freedoms
- banning people from French territory following expulsion, applicable to everyone who is expelled and very difficult to act against.

 France: Racial profiling and anti-poor byelaws: the French Human Rights League successfully challenges an anti-begging byelaw (link) Anti-begging byelaws are increasingly being adopted by French municipalities. Human rights associations have been quick to denounce the resulting stigmatisation of some social classes and minority groups.

 EU: Council of the European Union: Dublin II early warning system, visa lists, European Investigation Order:

- Proposal for a Regulation establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person (recast) - A process for early warning, preparedness and management of asylum crises (pdf)

- Proposal for a Directive on conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals in the framework of an intra-corporate transfer (pdf)

- Outcomes: Draft Regulation amending Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement(pdf)

- Presidency proposals on above (pdf) Note there are still over 40 Member State reservations.

- Initiative of Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Spain, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden for a Directive regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters - Follow-up document of the meeting of the "Working Party on cooperation in criminal matters" on 14 November 2011 (23 pages, pdf).

 EU: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): EDPS calls for strengthening of proposed Regulation on the Internal Market Information System (Press release, pdf) and Opinion (pdf):

"IMI is an online application that allows national, regional and local authorities in European Union Member States to communicate quickly and easily with their counterparts in other European countries.... The EDPS calls attention to two key challenges: the need to ensure consistency in the legal framework, while respecting diversity, and the need to balance flexibility and legal certainty. ... The Opinion also calls for further strengthening of data subjects´ rights and for
reconsideration of the extension of the currently applicable 6-months retention period unless adequate justifications are provided."

 EU-ECHR ACCESSION: Council of the European Union: Friends of Presidency (FREMP) Accession of the EU to the ECHR: Working Document from the Presidency (DS 1675-11, pdf)

 


June 2011 - Statewatch Report

For full contents see: Statewatch News online with analysis, documentation, news in brief and News Archives 2000-ongoing or What's New: which lists all News Online and News in Brief items. The latest 25 lead items are listed below.



 

EU: Statewatch Analysis: “A radically changing political landscape in the Southern Mediterranean”? The Dialogue for Migration, Mobility and Security with the Southern Mediterranean countries (pdf) by Marie Martin:

"The strategy of using the voice of the people on the other side of the Mediterranean to legitimate its policy does not convince anyone: the externalisation of border controls and the management of migration flows remains the top priority on EU’s agenda, far ahead of human rights considerations."

EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal for a Regulation amending Council Regulation (EC) No 2007/2004 establishing a European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX) - Analysis of the final compromise text with the view to agreement (pdf). This final version refers to changes in the original: Commission Proposal(pdf).

This final "compromise" is the result of six secret 1st reading trilogues between the Council and the European Parliament.

This Council report sets out the next stages with the Commission to carry out a feasibility study on the creation of a "European system of border guards" and to analyse whether to rename "RABITS", "European Boarder Guard Teams".

EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal for a Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection and the content of the protection granted (recast) - Examination of draft compromise text (pdf). Likely to be agreed by COREPER 7 July.

EU: Standing Committee of experts on international immigration, refugee and criminal law: The Meijers Committee Opinion on:Directive on the use of PNR data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime (COM(2011)32) (pdf)

EU: Fundamental Rights Agency Report: Migrants in an irregular situation employed in domestic work: Fundamental rights challenges for the European Union and its Member States (68 pages, pdf)

EU: "SMART BORDERS": Commission Background Note (pdf) Covers Registered Traveller Programme (RTP)and the Entry-exit system (ESS), two measures yet to be adopted. The Note makes no mention of the extension of the EES to cover travel within the EU as a majority in the Council are backing nor of ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation). The total cost of the RTP and EES between 2013-2020 is estimated to be 1,335 million euro.

European Parliament holds back ACTA documents (Wobbing, link)

EU: Council of the European Union: Implementing the infamous Returns Directive: Questionnaire on defining the conditions under which an entry ban can be imposed and the means by which Member States can have rapid access to information on an entry ban (pdf). See: Statewatch Analysis (pdf) and Against the Outrageous Directive (pdf)

EU: Council of the European Union: Polish, Danish and Cyprus Presidencies: JHA External Relations - Trio Programme (pdf): includes JAIEX mandate and says: "indicates tasks for several Council working parties that will be involved in achieving the goals concerning external relations within the JHA area. JAIEX will contribute to this process mainly by facilitating the exchange of information and providing a forum for strategic and horizontal reflections."

COE-EU-ECHR: Draft final agreement: Draft Legal Instruments on the Accession of the European Union to the European Convention on Human Rights (pdf)

EU: 1st reading trilogue discussions between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament:

- Proposal for a Directive on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and on a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State (pdf)

- Proposal for a Directive on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, repealing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (pdf) and see also: Council of the European Union: Proposal for a Directive on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, replacing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (First reading) - Analysis of the final compromise text with view to a first reading agreement (pdf)

- Proposal for a Directive on the right to information in criminal proceedings: - Outstanding issues and consolidated text (pdf) 

EU-ACTA: Opinion of European Academics on Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (pdf)

See also: European Commission: Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Mexican States, the Kingdom of Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Singapore, the Swiss Confederation and the United States of America (COM 379, pdf) and COM 380 (pdf)

EU: Council of the European Union: Provisional agendas for Council meetings, during the second semester of 2011 (Polish Presidency) (pdf) Edited for Justice and Home Affairs meetings.

EU US Working Group on Cyber-Security and Cyber-Crime

In response to Parliamentary question 4816/2011 from Marietje Schaake (ALDE, the Netherlands) on Purpose of the EU US Working Group on Cyber-Security and Cyber-Crime, Commissioner Malmström said that: (1) The Commission does not share the Honourable Member's view that little information about agreements with the US can be found. Regarding the EU-US working group (WG) on cyber-security and cyber-crime, the following press statements are publicly available: MEMO/11/246, MEMO/10/597 and PRES/10/315. (2) The EU-US WG will not deal with commercial matters, but is tasked with developing collaborative approaches to a wide range of cyber-security and cyber-crime issues, including cyber-incident management (e.g. joint cyber attack exercises), awareness raising and cybercrime (combating child pornography and the misuse of Internet resources, such as domain names and Internet Protocol addresses). The WG will equally promote the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime in the remaining EU member states and globally. (3) The fact that the threat from cybercrime is growing and represents a social and economic menace to our societies has been established not only by the industry operating in the online environment, but also by public bodies in the EU and internationally, including Europol and Interpol.

EU: TO DOCUMENTS: EU states object to transparency in law-making (euobserver, link): The Council of the European Union has decided to appeal against the decision of the European Court of Justice in the -Info case concerning the publication of Member States position and the "space to think" in secret under Articel 4.3 of the Regulation on to EU documents:

"An EU source told EUobserver that potentially the positions of states on all subjects and discussions at the level of working group could be opened up for public scrutiny: "The decision-making process as established, the 'space to think' must be protected. This is what is at stake.... one source close the matter told EUobserver that a full 20 member states are backing the legal action."

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:

"The Council are trying to bully the European Court of Justice by weight of numbers to protect their so-called "space to think" because their argument is patent nonsense. The Council is a legislature together with the European Parliament when adopting EU measures - a "legislature" in a democracy worthy of the name cannot meet in secret. Yet this is the practice the Council wants to perpetuate."

See: Full-text of ECJ judgment (pdf) and The case for the repeal of Article 4.3

SPYING ON THE EU: Microsoft admits Patriot Act can EU-based cloud data (Zdnet, link)

EU: Giscard: Europe needs a people’s congress (euractiv, link) Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:

"Interesting thoughts from Valéry Giscard d'Estaing but the "People's Congress" idea is only about meetings of European and national parliaments supplemented by monthly meetings of EU leaders - this is still a "top-down" approach and will not solve "the lack of a European public space" which requires openness, transparency, accountability, a comprehensible decision-making process, enforceable adherence to fundamental rights, and encouraging diversity and dissent."

EU: Scientists and NGOs slam Commission's Research funding plans (Press Release, pdf) and Public Research should benefit Society, not Big Business - An Open Letter on the Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation Funding (pdf) signed by ninety-eight civil society and research organisations, including Statewatch, from across Europe:

"In an open letter sent today to the President and Members of the European Commission as well as the European Parliament and the EU Member states, 98 civil society and research organisations from across Europe warn that the Commission's draft proposals for the next Research funding framework (2014-2020) fail to address the real challenges faced by European societies and call for a research agenda geared towards the needs of society and the environment rather than those of big business."

EU: Statewatch Analysis: “Network with errors”: Europe’s emerging web of DNA databases (pdf) by Eric Topfer:

The networking of European national police databases is progressing. However, the implementation of the “principle of availability” is full of pitfalls, as the practice of DNA data exchange illustrates.

UK: Statewatch Analysis: Review of counter-terrorism powers fails to deliver definitive change (pdf) by Max Rowlands:

The recommendations of the counter-terrorism and security powers review undermine the coalition government’s commitment to restore “hard-won British liberties.”

ECHR-UK: JUDGMENT: European Court of Human Rights judgment: The United Kingdom would violate human rights of two Somali nationals if it returned them to Mogadishu (Press release, pdf) and Judgment: Full-text (pdf):

"The case concerned a complaint by two Somali nationals that they risked being illtreated or killed if returned to Mogadishu. There are currently 214 applications about returns to Somalia pending against the United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights."

EU: Joint contribution of the German, French and United Kingdom delegations regarding the proposals for a directive laying down standards for the reception of asylum seekers and for asylum procedures (pdf) These three EU Member States "lay down the law" for Commission proposals and say:

"So far as the Reception Conditions Directive is concerned, the new proposals should contribute to the good management of the problem of asylum, in the context of the rise in intake, and should not make claiming asylum more attractive or increase costs on Member States."

EU: COUNCIL-EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: First reading deal on: Proposal for a Regulation implementing Article 10 of the United Nations’ Firearms Protocol and establishing export authorisation, and import and transit measures for firearms, their parts and components and ammunition (LA + S) (First reading) - Approval of the final compromise text (pdf)

EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal for a Directive on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, replacing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA (First reading) - Analysis of the final compromise text with view to a first reading agreement (pdf) See also: MEPs and Council move to limit child porn: Compromise deal leaves decision to block websites with national governments (European Voice, link)

EU: INTERNAL SECURITY: Letter from the Council Presidency to the Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) on the work of COSI (Standing Committee on operational cooperation on internal security (pdf)