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).
May 2009 - 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: SPECIAL STATEWATCH REPORT: The Shape of Things to Come - the EU Future Group (Version.1.3) by Tony Bunyan: 33,045 copies downloaded. The report calls for a “meaningful and wide-ranging debate” before it is “too late” for privacy and civil liberties. See also: Observatory on: Stockholm Programme
SURVEILLANCE STATES: Government spying, civil liberties and the "special relationship": The American Civil Liberties Union, PEN American Center and Statewatch invite you to join experts from the US and UK at Garden Court Chambers on 31 May 2009 for a discussion of mass surveillance, its implications, and challenges to government policy and practice. The panel will be moderated by Carla Ferstman, director of REDRESS, a human rights organisation that helps torture survivors obtain justice and reparation. The panel will feature: JAMEEL JAFFER, director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s National Security Project; PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE is a fellow at the Century Foundation, a progressive policy think tank, and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Slate, and other publications on issues of national security, civil liberties, human rights, and the rule of law; BEN HAYES, associate director of Statewatch; LARRY SIEMS, director of PEN American Center’s Freedom to Write program, which defends writers facing persecution around the world, and PEN’s Campaign for Core Freedoms, a major initiative to turn back new threats to freedom of expression in the United States. Date: Sunday, 31 May 2009: Time: 5:00pm - 6:30pm. Location: Garden Court Chambers, 57- 60 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3LS. See flyer for more information
UK-EU-USA: Two Instruments bringing into force in the UK the EU-USA agreements on extradition and mutual assistance (pdf). Although agreed back in 2004 it has taken over five years for each EU government and the USA to ratify these two agreements - the process is nearly complete. The agreement on extradition is controversial and that on, seemingly straightforward, "mutual assistance" is far-reaching in terms of police cooperation and the exchange of personal data. This is being adopted in the UK as an international Treaty without discussion - and the UK is formally committed to enacting it as a result of the EU-US agreement. Statewatch background coverage: EU/US agreement on extradition and mutual assistance and EU-USA agreements - the drafts on the table
UK: House of Commons Home Affairs Committee: Vol I: The Trade in Human Beings: Human Trafficking in the UK (pdf) and Oral and written evidence Volume II (pdf)
Statewatch publication: Border war and asylum crimes by Frances Webber (38 pages, pdf): "When the pamphlet ‘Crimes of Arrival’ was written, in 1995, the title was a metaphor for the way the British government, in common with other European governments, treated migrants and especially, asylum seekers. Now, a decade on, that title describes a literal truth.... There is a frightening continuity between the treatment of asylum claimants and that of terrorist suspects. In the name of the defence of our way of life and our enlightenment values from attack by terrorists or by poor migrants, that way of life is being destroyed by creeping authoritarianism, and those values – amongst which the most important is the universality of human rights – betrayed." See also: Crimes of arrival: immigrants and asylum-seekers in the new Europe (12 pages, 1995, pdf). To order hard-copy see: Statewatch Publications
DATA PROTECTION: Report for the Information Commissioner: Press release (pdf) and Full report (pdf)
UK: Evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights concerning the provisions of the Policing and Crime Bill that relate to the use and retention of DNA and CCTV/APNR images (pdf) by Dr Chris Pounder: "This evidence is limited to commentary on New Clause 33 (NC33) which provides for wide ranging powers in relation to the use and retention of personal data, in particular CCTV and Automated Number Plate Readers (ANPR) images, and personal data derived from DNA samples. The Government has explained that the clause is its response following the loss of its ECHR case in S and Marper v The United Kingdom.... The definition of “photograph to include a moving image” in section 64B(10) could provide a statutory basis for the retention or use of CCTV images as part of ACPO’s National CCTV Strategy."
EU-USA: Obama Administration To Revive Fatally Flawed Military Commissions: Decision Strikes Blow To Due Process And Rule Of Law (ACLU, link). See also from the Council of the European Union: Draft Conclusions of the Council and of the representatives of the Governments of the Member States on the closure of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre (dated 14 May 2009, pdf) which says: "Welcoming the decision of the President of the United States of America to close the Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre and to order a review of detention, trial, transfer and interrogation policies in the fight against terrorism”
UK: National Union of Journalists: NUJ slams Tamil protest policing (NUJ, link). The NUJ has today (Friday) hit out at the treatment of journalists by police at a Tamil protest outside the Houses of Parliament on Monday (11/05/09) and Police accused of targeting photographers (Guardian, link)
EU ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS REGULATION: Council of the European Union: Proposal made by Denmark, Estonia, Finland and Slovenia concerning Article 4, paragraph 2, point (c) of the Commission's proposal (pdf). Following the European Court of Justice judgment in the Turco case that Council Legal Opinions on policy-making measures should in general be made publicly available these four Member States are proposing that the Regulation be amended to establish this right. Background see: Turco judgment: Press release and Court judgment - full-text and the Observatory on EU Regulation on access to documents: 2008-2009
ITALY: Letter to Commission Barrot: European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), osservAzione and the Open Society Institute (OSI) (pdf) and Memorandum to the European Commission: Violations of EC law and the fundamental rights of Roma and Sinti by the Italian government in the implementation of the census in "Nomad camps" (pdf)
EUROPOL: Council Decision establishing the European Police Office (Europol) (pdf). This replaces the Europol Convention of 1995.
UK: TERRORIST ARRESTS: Home Office Statistical Bulletin: Statistics on Terrorism: Arrests and Outcomes: 11 September 2001 to 31 March 2008 (pdf) Only 13% of people arrested have been convicted of terrorist offences and 56% were not even charged.
EU: SIS & VEHICLE CHECKS: Implementation of Article 102A of the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement during the year 2007 - Draft report to be submitted to the European Parliament in accordance with Art. 102A(4) of the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement (CISA) (pdf): ""the JSA [Joint Supervisory Authority, data protection] can only repeat its conclusion from the year 2006 "that the control on the use of data on objects as provided for in Article 102A, is still not in compliance with Article 103". The recording of every transmission for the checking purposes allows for the appropriate authorities to actually check the lawfulness of the processing (use) of the data according to Article 102A. Not ensuring the proper control on the use of data might raise negative data protection implications, i.e. the implementation of the data quality, proportionality principles and data security." Under the EU measure vehicle data is not considered to be personal data, however: "national Data Protection Authorities generally consider registration certificates and number plates as personal data, unless the circumstances of processing do not give any possibility or requires unreasonable amount of efforts for identification of the holder of the certificate or number plate. This also relates to the possibilities of the user of the data, and most of them are governmental authorities, to link a number plate to an individual person."
EU: Regulation on access to EU documents: Latest Council position: Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (recast) (8.5.09, pdf)
ECHR: How can the role of the European Court of Human Rights be enhanced? Recommendations for Germany Policy Paper by Prof. Dr Christoph Gusy and Sebastian Müller, Bielefeld University (pdf) and see: Juristras (link)
European Commission: Small chips with big potential: New EU recommendations make sure 21st century bar codes respect privacy (Press release) and Commission Recommendation on the implementation of privacy and data protection principles in applications supported by radio-frequency identification (COM 3200, pdf). See: EU pushes for smart tag revolution (euactiv, link)
EU: UK House of Lords European Union Select Committee report: Procedural rights in EU criminal proceedings - an update (pdf)
"Make sure you say that you were treated properly", Gareth Peirce writes about Torture, Secrecy and the British State (London Review of Books, link). Gareth is a lawyer who has since the 1970s represented individuals accused of involvement in terrorism from both the Irish and the Muslim communities.
EU: Frontex and the US Department of Homeland Security (Frontex press release, link) and: Frontex: External evaluation of the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (pdf)
ITALY-LIBYA: Euro Mediteranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) and Migreurop: Press release: Illegal refoulement of 500 migrants to Libya : the EU must condemn Italian authorities (link), French (link) and Italian (link)
EU: Brain scanning may be used in security checks (Guardian, link). See: the EU FP6 funded project completed in 2008, Humabio (link), describes itself as follows: "HUMABIO is a EC co-funded "Specific Targeted Research Project" (STREP) where new types of biometrics are combined with state of the art sensorial technologies in order to enhance security in a wide spectrum of applications like transportation safety and continuous authentication in safety critical environments like laboratories, airports or other buildings." Project concept: Unobtrusive Multimodal Biometric Authentication: The HUMABIO Project Concept (link)
EU: Statewatch analysis: The EU’s JHA agenda after the EP elections (pdf) by Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex. The European Parliament (EP) has just completed its last session before breaking for elections in June 2009. This analysis first of all lists all of the proposals which the Commission has announced for the rest of 2009 and secondly, all pending measures which have already been proposed, and which are under active discussion as of 7 May 2009.
EU: Tony Bunyan's "View from the EU" column: We're not the only ones to stifle dissent - Police tactics at the G20 demonstrations reflect an Europe–wide trend to conflate terrorism and protest as equal threats to security (Guardian Libertycentral, link)
ITALY-LIBYA: Jesuit Refugee Service: Removal of 227 migrants to Libya directly contravenes international laws (Press release, pdf): "The forced removal of 227 men and women to Libya by Italian authorities is absolutely unacceptable. With no opportunity to make an asylum claim these migrants now risk ill-\treatment or being pushed back into the arms of their persecutors."
UK: We won't collude with efforts to use the academy to police immigration (Times HIgher Education Supplement, link): "Ann Singleton, Steve Tombs and David Whyte decry the insidious way in which academics are being used to monitor foreign students and staff"
EU: TELECOM PACKAGE REJECTED: Czech Council Presidency reaction: Presidency regrets that EP disregards compromise on telecom reform (link). In a bitter response the Council says that: "The Czech EU Presidency regrets the fact that the European Parliament did not honour the agreement reached with the Council of the EU and the European Commission on the important overhaul of rules governing the telecoms market.... It is evident that the whole package has become hostage to the pre-election campaign of a part of MEPs." Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "Normally "deals" reached in secret trialogues between the Council and the European Parliament go through on the nod. This is the first time I know of that the EP plenary has ever refused to go along with an informal deal with the Council agreed in the co-decision process. On this ocassion the grave concerns of civil society have been listened to."
Wednesday: European Parliament: MEPs reject "deal": No agreement on reform of telecom legislation (Press release, pdf): "A user's Internet access cannot be restricted without prior ruling by the judicial authorities, insists the European Parliament reinstating one of its first-reading amendments. By amending an informal agreement reached with Council, MEPs send the whole "telecom package" to conciliation." and see: Amendment 138/46 adopted again. Internet is a fundamental right in Europe (La Quadrature, link)
UK: DNA DATABASE: Update: DNA pioneer condemns plan to keep details on database for 12 years - 'Minimal' response to European court ruling - Measures fail to address key concerns, say lawyers (Guardian, link) Home Office response to the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the Marper case: Innocent will be sentenced to 12 years on the DNA database and Smith's DNA database by stealth: Jacqui Smith's new plans erode principles of innocent until proven guilty to create a New Labour-style third way: innocentish by Mark Thomas (Guardian links). Home Office Consultation: Keeping the right people on the DNA database (pdf) and Annex to consultation (3 MB, link) European Court of Human Rights unanimously finds that the UK practice of keeping indefinitely the fingerprints and DNA of people not convicted of an offence is a violation of Article 8 of the ECHR Convention: Marper case press release (pdf) and Full-text of Marper judgment (pdf).
European Parliament: Press release from Stavros Lambrinidis MEP (pdf): "The European Parliament adopted today with a large majority the Harbour Report amendments on the revision of the E-Privacy Directive, favouring socialist proposals since the initiation of Parliament's involvement in the Civil Liberties Committee, on the mandatory notification of breaches affecting personal data, on user consent for the storing of cookies, and on the protection of IP addresses as personal data."
UK: High Street stores to offer ID services (Home Office press release (link) and Manchester launch for ID cards (BBC News, link): "At a series of meetings on Wednesday, Ms Smith said post offices and pharmacies could play an important role in the success of the ID scheme, allowing people to give their fingerprints and a face scan while "out doing the shopping". " Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "It is really hard to see where the government is going. If people can get an ID card at pharmacies and post offices how are they going to check that the person is who they say there are? Will they have access to state databases to check who a person is? How can the security of biometrics (finger-prints) be ensured?" and across in the USA the General Accountability Office produces yet another report showing flaws in the issuing of passports in tests one was issued to a person who was dead and another to a five year old and on the basis of a false birth certificate: Significant Vulnerabilities in the Passport Issuance Process (pdf)
UK: Under the Terrorism Act 2000 (Sections 44.1 and 44.2, p36) in the year a total of 124,687 searches were carried out on pedestrians and vehicle occupants - "a threefold increase" on the previous year (41,924). Only 1% resulted in arrests - 1,271 in total and of these only 73 were for terrorist offences. The Metropolitan Police in London accounted for 87% of the searches. The Press release notes that 1,045,923 people (or vehicles) were stopped and searched in England and Wales (43 police forces) - a 9% increase on the previous year. The detailed report shows that a more a third of these stops and searches, 393, 583 were carried out by the Metropolitan Police (p39). Overall just of 10% were arrested, 119,567, which means that 926,356 people stopped and searched because they were suspects were not arrested. Annual report: Statistical News Release: Police Powers and Procedures England and Wales 2007/08 (Press release, pdf) and Police Powers and Procedures England and Wales 2007/08 (pdf). Story followed up by: Capital sees rise in terror stops (BBC News, link) amd includes a quote from Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terrorism laws: "It catches no or almost no terrorism material, it has never caught a terrorist and therefore it should be used conservatively."
EU: European Commission: Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 881/2002 imposing certain specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Al-Qaida network and the Taliban (pdf)
European Parliament: Telecoms Package: When rapporteurs betray EU citizens (La Quadrature, link) and UK government pushes for discriminated Internet (La Quadrature, link)
EU: Sison case returns to Court in ongoing challenge to EU terrorist blacklist: Press release from European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights in advance of the 'Sison II' hearing in Luxembourg on 30 April 2009 (case T-341/07). Sison is challenging the accuracy and legitimacy of the 'statement of reasons' upon which the Council of the EU now bases its decision to freeze his assets and included him in the 'terrorist list'. See also pre-hearing report of the court rapporteur, abbreviated defence application and www.echr.eu
EU: Commission proposals in response to Kadi (COM (2009) 187, 22 April 2009). The European Commission has presented its eagerly anticipated proposal to amend the EC Regulations implementing the UN 'terrorist list' in response to the celebrated EU Court of Justice ruling in Kadi and Al-Barakaat of September 2008. If adopted, the proposal would introduce the equivalent listing and de-listing procedures for those followed for the EU's own 'terrorist list' since the ECJ ruling of December 2006 in the PMOI case. For full story see Statewatch's Observatory on "terrorist" lists
UK: Campaigners monitored by civil servants: Intelligence on climate groups passed to police - 'Orwellian' approach condemned by Liberty (Guardian, link) and Department of Transport: Full-text of "Project Delivery and Risk report" for 13.11.08 (excel file) Alongside Item 1 it says: "Strength of opposition to expansion at Heathrow leads to direct action before and around time of Ministerial considerations thereby delaying final policy decisions." The measures in place to "manage" this "risk" are: "1. Comms directorate to continually monitor protest groups and brief staff/police accordingly. 2. Monitroing forward programme to anticipate likely flare points" .The document rates the "inherent risk" as medium or high
SWEDEN-CIA FLIGHTS: Sweden spied on CIA 'terror flights': report (The Local, link)
See: Full contents of Statewatch News online with commentary and news in brief plus archives or What's New
June 2008 - Statewatch Report
For full contents see: Statewatch News online with analysis, documentation, news in brief and News Archives 2000-ongoing or What's New The latest 25 news items are listed below:
EU-US: Final Report by EU-US High Level Contact Group on information sharing and privacy and personal data protection (pdf) This report was presented at the EU-US Summit on 12 June 2008. The High Level Group was set up on 6 November 2006 with the brief to conduct: "discussions on privacy and personal data protection in the context of the exchange of information for law enforcement purposes as part of a wider reflection between the EU and the U.S. on how best to prevent and fight terrorism and serious transnational crime." Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "In fact the scope would cover "any criminal offence" however minor. There is no guarantee EU citizens will be informed that data and information on them has been transferred to the USA or to which agencies it has been passed or give them the right to correct it. Moreover, the agreement would apply to individual requests and automated mass transfers and allow the USA to give the data to any third state "if permitted under its domestic law". It would be good to say that the USA must guarantee the same rights to people when personal information is transferred between EU states but this would be meaningless as the Council is about to adopt a Framework Decision which gives individuals few if any protections against misuse and abuse." The Council of the European Union is about to adopt a: Council Framework Decision on the protection of personal data processed in the framework of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters (pdf) covering the transfer of personal data and information/intelligence between EU member states. The Council has simply ignored all the criticisms of the measure from the European Parliament, the European Data Protection Supervisor, the Article 29 Working Party on data protection and civil society: See: Statewatch's: Observatory on data protection in the EU
EU-USA PNR AGREEMENT: Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data by air carriers to the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – Declarations made in accordance with Article 24(5) TEU - State of Play (pdf)
EU-PNR: Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on the use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) for law enforcement purposes - State of play (pdf) See Statewatch's: Observatory: EU surveillance of passengers (PNR)
EU-PNR: NOTE from: Chair of the Airports Group of the Council of Europe's Pompidou Group (pdf) - calls for the scope of EU PNR scheme to be extended from flights in and out of the EU to cover also flights within the EU - calls for scope to be extended from organised crime to serious crime - calls for Customs agencies should have access to personal name registers - calls for direct online access to airline passenger reservation systems (not "PUSH" as recommended). See Statewatch's: Observatory: EU surveillance of passengers (PNR)
EU-AUSTRALIA: PNR AGREEMENT: Full-text: Agreement between the European Union and Australia on the processing and transfer of European Union-sourced passenger name record (PNR) data by air carriers to the Australian Customs Service (pdf)
BALUCH-USA-UK: Baluch human rights defender, a British citizen, detained and deported by USA: "On June 23rd, Baluch human rights defender Noordin Mengal was detained at Newark Liberty International Airport in the US on his arrival from the United Arab Emirates. After being held for nearly 26 hours in the custody of the United States Department of Homeland Security, he was sent back to Dubai after being denied entry to the US. Noordin Mengal, grandson of veteran Baluch leaders Sardar Attaullah Mengal and Nawab Khair Bakhsh Marri, is a British citizen and a representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council on behalf of Interfaith International and is also a member of the Baluchistan National Party." For background see: Never mind the Baluch (link to Transnational Institute)
For the record: EU-USA "SWIFT" agreement (2007) - documentation "Following press reports in June 2006, it was revealed that the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") operating on the basis of powers under the TFTP has served administrative subpoenas on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication ("SWIFT")1. These subpoenas require SWIFT in the U.S. to transfer personal data held on its United States2 server to OFAC where they are used for counter terrorism purposes regarding suspected individuals or entities.... SWIFT is a Belgium-based company with offices in the United States and which operates a worldwide messaging system used to transmit, inter alia, bank transaction information. It has been estimated that SWIFT handles 80% of the worldwide traffic for electronic value transfers."
EU-ITALY: Plight of the Roma: echoes of Mussolini: "The compulsory fingerprinting of Italy's Gypsy population is the latest example of the country's increasingly repressive attitude towards minorities – and an ominous reminder of the policies of the former Fascist dictator". Peter Popham reports (Independent, link). Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "In a EU of "common values" we are all responsible for what happens in Italy"
EU: Following a request for information to the Commission by Professor David Miller, University of Strathclyde, it has supplied a: List of members of expert group on violent radicalisation (24 June 2008, pdf). An earlier Commission response of 3 June 2008 (pdf)
USA: Amnesty International USA (AIUSA), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), and the International Human Rights Clinic at NYU School of Law (NYU IHRC): Rights groups challenge CIA for failure to release more than 7,000 documents relating to secret detention, rendition and torture program (pdf) "The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) must no longer be allowed to use classification arguments in its attempts to prevent the disclosure of illegal or embarrassing conduct in its secret detention, torture, and rendition programs, three prominent human rights groups said today. The statement came just hours after they collectively filed a motion to require the CIA to make certain information public and to provide more details about all the documents withheld."
FRENCH EU COUNCIL PRESIDENCY: European Pact on immigration and asylum (January 2008, pdf)
UK: COUNTER TERRORISM BILL: The House of Commons Justice Committee today publishes the Government's response to its report on the Counter Terrorism Bill, in which the Committee expressed its concerns about the proposals relating to the coroners system which provided for "the Secretary of State to certify that a coroner's inquest may be held without a jury and to appoint a particular security cleared coroner in inquests which are expected to involve the consideration of material that should not be made public". Justice Committee report (pdf) See also: UK parliamentary Joint Human Rights Committee report: Counter–Terrorism Policy and Human Rights: Government Responses to the Committee's Twentieth and Twenty–first Reports and other correspondence (pdf)
Hungary: Agreement Between the Government of The Republic of Hungary and the Government of The United States of America for the Exchange of Screening Information Concerning Known or Suspected Terrorists (pdf). This complements the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States and Hungary. Enacted on March 17, 2008, the MOU strives for Hungarian membership in the Visa Waiver Program.
Council of Europe: New book: CIA above the law? Secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees in Europe (300 pages, link to ordering page, hard-copy 23 euro, pdf 8 euro)
MASRI-UN-MACEDONIA: The UN Committee against Torture (CAT) and the Human Rights Committee (HRC) have advised the Macedonia government to undertake a new and thorough investigation into the abduction and ill-treatment of Mr Khaled El-Masri when held by CIA agents in secret detention: HRC report (pdf) - CAT report, 21 May 2008 (pdf) - CAT report, 20 May 2008 (pdf). See for full background Statewatch's Observatory on CIA Rendition
UK: Report on the operation in 2007 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and of Part I if the Terrorism Act 2006 by Lord Carlile (pdf) and Government Reply to the Report by Lord Carlile (pdf) and Terrorist arrests, charges and conviction figures for 2007 (Source: Lord Carlile's report)
EU: FOI-ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS: Statewatch Analysis June 2008: Proposal on access to documents: Article-by-Article commentary (pdf) Analysis of the Commission's proposed changes to the Regulation on access to EU documents (1049/2001) by Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex.
MALTA: Journalists Committee welcomes the decision to open migrants detention centres (pdf) "The Journalists Committee welcomes the decision taken by the Justice and Home Affairs Minister Carmel Mifsud Bonnici to open migrants detention centres to journalists. Committee chairperson Karl Schembri said this was a positive development for journalists in Malta and recalled the role of the Journalists Committee in calling for open access to detention centres... Today, the new minister has finally taken on board our appeal and open up detention centres to journalists.The Journalists Committee has for years argued that detention centres and prisons were kept closed to journalists against all sense of transparency and accountability."
UK: Review urged on RIPA surveillance powers (pdf) LGA media release 23 June 2008. The Local Government Association has today written to the leaders of every council in England calling on them to undertake an urgent review of surveillance operations carried out under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA).
European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): Opinion on safer Internet for children: data protection is an essential prerequisite to the safety of children online (pdf)
EU: COUNTER-TERRORISM report: Implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan to Combat Terrorism and Implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan to Combat Terrorism - Addendum: Adoption of measures plus Implementation of the EU Counter-Terrorism Strategy - Priorities for further action
EU: The Council produces a regular Newsletter on the European Security and Defence Policy (link)
EU: Paper by Professor Steve Peers: Can the Treaty of Lisbon be ratified or implemented?: A legal analysis (pdf)
EU: RETURNS DIRECTIVE: Global outcry against EU immigration directive (euobserver, link) and Souhayr Belhassen, president of the International Federation for Human Rights, argued that the timing of the European Parliament's vote was particularly unfortunate as the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will be celebrated later this year. "By adopting this text, the European legislator lets us understand that migrants are not human beings like any other, provided with rights and to whom states owe obligations," Belhassen added. "They are dehumanised." Parliament Votes Jail for Asylum-Seekers by David Cronin. See also: Green group in the European Parliament: Returns directive: Vote of shame mocks standards of civilisation (Press statement, link); GUE (European United Left) group in the European Parliament: Europe no longer the cradle of human rights (link to statement)
EU: RETURNS DIRECTIVE: The European Parliament has voted this morning (18 June) 367 in favour, 206 against and 109 abstentions on the amended text approving the "compromise" text with the Council.
EU: UNITED: "Fortress Europe": More than 8800 Deaths, 20 June 2007, International Refugee Day. UNITED has co-ordinated an international refugee campaign since several years, which consists of two complimentary parts: - Protesting against the restrictive asylum and migration policies, that are often referred to as "Fortress Europe": especially focusing attention on the deaths of already more than 8800 people who tried to find a safe haven in Europe and Promoting a safe environment for refugees and asylum seekers where they do not have to fear racism and intolerance.
EU OMBUDSMAN: Ombudsman: new rules on investigations will help in finding the truth (pdf)
EU-FOI: Access to documents: Commissioner Wallströms hits back at critics: ”They can’t have read the text” (Wobbing. link). Report by by Staffan Dahllöf.Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "The idea that Statewatch, and Steve Peers who represented us at the hearing in the European Parliament on 2 June, had not read the text is sheer nonsense. We have worked on access to EU documents for over 15 years and we know how the current definition of a "document" works in practice - and it works fine. The only institution which does not like the definition is the Commission. In response to Statewatch's complaint to the European Ombudsman, over its failure to put all its documents on its public register, the Commission President repeatedly rejected the definition of a document in the Regulation as being too wide".
EU: Commission is set to agree today two "packages", one on asylum, the other on immigration: (pdf's): Asylum package: - Communication: Policy plan on asylum: A integrated approach to protection across the EU - Commission Staff Working Document: Accompanying document to the Policy Plan on the Common European Asylum System Impact Assessment - Commission Staff Working Document: Annexes - Memorandum to the Commission
- Green Paper (2.6 MB) - Citizens Summary Immigration package: - Communication: On common principles for the further development of the Common Immigration Policy: a platform for a new European approach - Commission Staff Working Document: Accompanying document on common principles for the further development of the Common Immigration Policy: a platform for a new European approach: Impact Assessment (SEC, 76 pages) - Commission Staff Working on common principles for the further development of the Common Immigration Policy: a platform for a new European approach: Impact Assessment (SEC, 60 pages) - Memorandum to the Commission - Citizen Summary
EU-RETURNS DIRECTIVE: European Parliament press release on the debate, 17 June 2008 (pdf)
EU: Institute of Race Relations pan-European research project: New report says Islamophobia warps integration efforts: Integration, Islamophobia and Civil Rights in Europe (Press release, link), Download the Introduction (link, pdf), Buy the full report (link)
EU-PNR: UK House of Lords' European Union Committee: The Passenger Name Record (PNR) Framework Decision (89 pages, pdf). A very useful report which considers amongst other issues the scope of the proposed EU-PNR Framework Decision which primarily rests on tackling terrorism: "Most significant of all, Ms Hillier’s [Home Office Minister] letter contains no reference to terrorism, and none of the examples she lists bears any relation to terrorism. Likewise, in oral evidence she was unable to give an example of the successful use of PNR in relation to a terrorist-related offence. She did assert that PNR “has absolutely been a tool in tackling terrorism”, and explained the problems of sharing information about this in public (Q 28). However such a statement is unpersuasive when not accompanied by even a claim that PNR has succeeded in preventing, or assisting in the prevention of, a single terrorist attack, or bringing to justice the perpetrators of such an attack. Similarly, Mr Hustinx told us that when the US Secretary of Homeland Security was addressing the European Parliament “he was careful to annex a list of some 20 or so examples to his speech and it was all about drugs and people evading paying taxes and things like that, but there was very little in terms of precision on terrorism” " In this context it is interesting to note that in the UK Border & Immigration Agency: e-Borders: Friends of Presidency Group meeting presentation, Brussels, 27 March 2008 (pdf) it is stated that: "The UK does not profile terrorists using PNR. In that respect we believe we are different to other governments who do use profiling techniques..." (emphasis added)
EU: An interesting document published the day after the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty: European Council (19 and 20 June 2008): Progress report from the Presidency to the European Council - Preparatory work in view of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty (pdf)
EU: Critical review instead of complacency: Amnesty International’s ten-point human rights programme for the French Presidency of the European Union, June 2008 (pdf)
EU-EP: RETURNS DIRECTIVE: As the European Parliament votes on the Returns Directive there will be a silent demonstration outside the parliament in Strasbourg on 17 June 2008. Demonstrations against the Directive will be taking place in a number of other countries including: Rome (pdf) Lisbon (pdf) Summary of demonstrations (pdf) Bulletin from No to Fortress Europe (pdf) Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "If passed this will be the 13th measure on visas, borders, immigration and asylum to be adopted by the European Parliament as a result of "first reading deals" negotiated in secret trilogue meetings with the Council. Neither the final deal nor the penultimate draft are available to the public on the Council's register of documents. Nor was the letter from the Council to the European Parliament setting out the deal of 4 June made available to the public either until a few days ago. There was no time at all for national parliaments and civil society to read, debate and react as the deal was already set in stone. This is no way to run a democracy, especially when the issues at stake concern peoples' fundamental rights." Note: the final and penultimate deals are addressed in Statewatch analysis: The Returns Directive: 9 June 2008 (pdf) by Professor Steve Peers, University of Essex - see also: Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit by Tony Bunyan
See: Full contents of Statewatch News online with commentary and news in brief plus archives or What's New
Top stories 2004-06
EU: Statewatch launches Observatory on data protection in the EU
- the protection of personal data in police and judicial matters
- full-text documentation on all the secret discussions in the Council
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "This is going to be a momentous decision affecting existing national laws on data protection, and the exchange of data within the EU and around the globe. It is also going to the the foundation of the right of data protection in a host of planned and future EU measures, including the new Schengen Information System (SIS II). The Commission draft proposal is being substantially re-written by the Council's Multidisciplinary Group on Organised Crime including removing the rights of data subjects and obstacles to the passing of data to third countries outside the EU. Until the Council finishes its so-called "second reading" the final text will not been known - when they are intending to simply "nod" it through. Unless the European Parliament recalls this text for further consideration there will be no time at all for an informed debate in national parliaments or civil society"
EU: Statewatch Report: Arming Big Brother: new research reveals the true costs of Europe's security-industrial complex (pdf, April 2006) The European Union is preparing to spend hundreds of million on new research into surveillance and control technologies, according to Arming Big Brother, a new report by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Statewatch. Press release (English) Press release (Spanish, link) Copy of full report (English, pdf) Copy of full report (Spanish, pdf) Hard copies of Arming Big Brother can be obtained from: The Transnational Institute, please send an e-mail to: wilbert@tni.org with your request.
EU: "Unaccountable Europe" by Tony Bunyan (Statewatch editor) in Special issue of Index on Censorship: "Big Brother Goes Global" (December 2005)
Statewatch analysis: "The European Parliament and data retention: Chronicle of a 'sell-out' foretold?" (pdf) by Professor Steve Peers (December 2005)
EU: The right to know or the right to try and find out? The need for an EU freedom of information law, by Ben Hayes (pdf, November 2005)
Europe: Launch of the European Civil Liberties Network (link) - The ECLN was launched on 19 October 2005 as a long-term project to develop a platform for groups working on civil liberties issues across Europe. A collection of "Essays in defence of civil liberties and democracy" was published to mark the launch the ECLN
EU: A Failure to Regulate: Data Protection in the Police Sector in Europe (pdf), by Ben Hayes (Statewatch) in "Ethnic Profiling by Police in Europe" (Open Society Justice Initiative, pdf).
EU: Analysis from Statewatch: SIS II fait accompli? Construction of EU's Big Brother database underway (pdf, May 2005)
Global surveillance: Global coalition launch report and international surveillance campaign: Statewatch, with partner organisations the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Focus on the Global South, Friends Committee (US) and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (Canada) today publishes an in-depth report: "The emergence of a global infrastructure for registration and surveillance" (20 April, 2005).
EU: "Terrorising the rule of law: the policy and practice of proscription" - Report and observatory monitoring the largely secret development of the policy of "proscribing" groups and individuals connected with "terrorism" (launched June 2005)
Statewatch report: Journalism, civil liberties and the war on terrorism (full-report/request printed copy) - Special report by the International Federation of Journalists and Statewatch including an analysis of current policy developments as well as a survey of 20 selected countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin Amercia, the Middle East and the USA (published World press freedom day, 1 May 2005)
Statewatch analysis: The exceptional and draconian become the norm - G8 and EU counter-terrorism plans (updated 26 March 2005 pdf)
UK-Libya: Target of Blair deportation intervention gets substantial compensation (18.11.04) Original Statewatch Special Report: UK: Egyptian national “unlawfully detained” after intervention by Prime Minister (16.11.04)
Statewatch "Scoreboard" on EU counter-terrorism plans (pdf) agreed in the wake of the Madrid bombings. Our analysis shows that 27 out of the 57 EU proposals have little or nothing to do with tackling terrorism - they deal with crime in general and surveillance: Analysis in Spanish (March 2004)
The road to "1984" Part II: Everyone in the EU will have to have their fingerprints taken to get a passport (February 2004)
