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Saturday, September 06, 2008

Anti-Terror Laws Prone to Abuse, Amnesty Says


Numerous governments around the world are using anti-terror laws to suppress political dissent and civil liberties, according to a new report released by one of the world’s most respected human rights organisations.
Amid calls for increased U.N. scrutiny, in its report, the London-based group Amnesty International raises serious questions and concerns about the impact of the so-called war on terror on human rights and freedom of speech in many countries.
”There is a huge gap between governmental rhetoric and the reality of human rights observance on the ground,” said Amnesty in its report, entitled ”Security and Human Rights: Terrorism and the United Nations.”
The rights group released its report Thursday just a few hours before the U.N. General Assembly plenary was due to start biennial review of the ”Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy,” a documented adopted by the member states some two years ago.
The report’s authors say in a number of countries government leaders are violating human rights, although there is no provision in the document that would allow them to do so while pursuing anti-terror policies.
The report says that many governments have ”rushed through problematic laws formulating often vaguely-defined crimes, such as banning organisations, undermining fair trial standards, and suspending safeguards aimed at protecting human rights.”
The so-called war on terror, according to the report, is being used by both democratic governments and repressive regimes alike to justify restrictions on their political opponents and dissidents.

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