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20 lead items are listed below. New: Statewatch
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EU: Major report
from Statewatch and the Transnational Institute:
NeoConOpticon
- The EU Security-Industrial Complex by Ben Hayes (pdf):127,192 copies
downloaded. Executive
Summary
(pdf) and NeoConOpticon
blog
European Parliament:
Statewatch report: Surveillance of
the sea external borders with the involvement of Frontex: the
LIBE Committee opposes the adoption of the European Commission
Draft Council decision
MALTA: Grupp29:
Stop
the criminalisation of art Maltese authors and artists
to government
(Press release, pdf) and Letter
to Minister
(pdf): "The Maltese community of authors, artists and
people working in the cultural field today called on the ministers
of justice and culture to assume their political responsibility
and stop the absurd criminal proceedings being taken against
editor Mark Camilleri and author Alex Vella Gera. In letters
of protest sent to Minister of Justice and Home Affairs Carmelo
Mifsud Bonnici, and Parliamentary Secretary for Culture Mario
de Marco, Grupp29 which unites 90 authors, artists and
cultural workers - stressed that the two government members are
politically responsible for the persecution of the author and
editor, and for the direct assault on freedom of expression and
artistic freedom." . See also: National
Protest Against Censorship (Indymedia Malta, link)
EU: Council of
the European Union: Initiative
for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council
on the rights to interpretation and to translation in criminal
proceedings - Draft letters to be sent to the Commission and
to the European Parliament (pdf): "the Council regrets
the adoption by the Commission of a new proposal for a Directive
of the European Parliament and of the Council on the right to
interpretation and translation in criminal proceedings. This
adoption was unexpected after the debate during the Council meeting
(Justice and Home Affairs) on 26 February 2010." Report
on discussion in the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) (pdf). For background
on this issue see News Online.
EU-ISRAEL: Should
the EU subsidise Israeli security? (European Voice, link) by Ben Hayes. "The
inclusion of Israel in the European Security Research Programme
undermines the EU's commitment to even-handedness in the Middle
East."
Belgium: Ministry
of justice and prison service under fire for arbitrary refusal On 16 March 2010, the Brussels Conseil
d'Etat issued an urgent injunction stopping the Ministry of Justice
and the Prison Service from giving effect to their decision of
24 February 2010 denying prison teacher Luk Vervaet access to
Belgian prisons for 'reasons of national security'. The injunction
was the latest move in Vervaet's battle for fair treatment from
the Belgian authorities, which has so far resulted in two court
rulings in his favour.
EU: European
Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): EDPS
issues Guidelines on Video-surveillance (Press release, pdf), Opinion (pdf) and FAQ (pdf)
Italy: Amnesty
International report argues that the "nomads plan"
is the wrong answer: In January 2010, the Italian section
of Amnesty International published a report entitled "The
wrong answer", in which it argues that the "nomads
plan" whose implementation is underway in Rome (as well
as Milan and Naples) since May 2008 violates Roma and Sinti people's
right to housing. It has opened the way to mass evictions of
thousands of Roma from makeshift settlements, supposedly to move
them into purpose-built camps with improved facilities on the
city's outskirts, rather than permanent accommodation. The report
highlights that the plan violates a number of international conventions
and that the "nomad emergency" is based on a double
fallacy: the term "nomad" means that the solutions
offered will be for "nomads", and hence temporary or
makeshift, and the term "emergency" conceals the discriminatory
nature of the measures and allows authorities not to comply with
a number of legal provisions by derogating them. The stories
of three families are documented in the report. Amnesty International,
La
Risposta Sbagliata. Italia: Il "Piano Nomadi" viola
il diritto all'alloggio dei Rom a Roma", January 2001 [pdf, in Italian, link].
Previous Statewatch coverage: Italy: Open-ended
emergencies: deployment of soldiers in cities and summary treatment
for Roma,
November 2009, Italy: Institutionalising
discrimination, Statewatch bulletin, vol. 18 no. 2, April- May
2008.
DENMARK: Danish
Rebellion Spokesman Convicted in Terror-Liberation Case (link): "Denmarks
Rebellion (Oprør) spokesman Patrick Mac Manus was found
guilty today (March 15, 2010) in Copenhagen City Court for: attempting
to collect funds for terrorist organizations
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Popular Front
for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP); and for encouraging
[hundreds of organizations] to collect funds for the same.
Judge Helle Hastrup, however, rendered a mild sentence of six
months probation as opposed to 18 months imprisonment asked for
by the prosecutor. Court costs of 110,000 Danish kroner (about
$20,000) plus 25% tax are to be shared by the defendant and the
state. She could have demanded that all court costs be paid by
the defendant."
EU countries sell tools of torture, says report (euobserver, link) and
From
words to deeds: Making the EU ban on the trade in "tools
of torture" a reality (link to report by Anmesty International
EU and Omega Research Foundation)
ITALY: GENOA:
G8
appeals: longer prison terms for demonstrators, more officers
convicted
Fighting anti-Muslim racism: an interview
with A. Sivanandan (IRR News Service, link): IRR News spoke to one
of the foremost analysts of racism and Black struggle as to how
to meet the contemporary challenge of anti-Muslim racism.
EU: LISBON TREATY:
Proposal
for a Regulation laying down the rules and general principles
concerning mechanisms for control by Member States of the Commissions
exercise of implementing powers (pdf). This proposal sets out proposed
new common rules to govern what is now the 2nd tier of EU "non-legislative"
decision-making covering implementing acts, where the
Commission's decision-making will be controlled by delegates
of Member States. This is distinct from the rules governing delegated
acts, where the European Parliament and the Council will
control the Commission's exercise of delegated powers, and where
the details of that control will be set out in each individual
EU legislative act that confers the power to adopt delegated
acts upon the Commission.
EU-JAPAN:Customs Cooperation: European Data Protection Supervisor:
Opinion (pdf)
The Electronic Police State (link): 51 states and
their rankings, with last years ranking is shown in parenthesis:
1. North Korea (2); 2. China (1)
3. Belarus (3); 4. Russia (4); 5. United States of America (6);
6. United Kingdom (5).
UK: Undercover
policeman reveals how he infiltrated UK's violent activists (Observer, link) "For
four years, Officer A lived a secret life among anti-racist activists
as they fought brutal battles with the police and the BNP. Here
he tells of the terrifying life he led, the psychological burden
it placed on him and his growing fears that the work of his unit
could threaten legitimate protest." Plus: Inside
the lonely and violent world of the Yard's elite undercover unit
(link)
and see: Video (link)
UK:
Handcuff restraint of asylum seekers criticised (BBC News, link) and
see: Report
to the UK Border Agency on "outsourcing abuse" (link, pdf)
EU: European
Commission proposal: Proposal
for a Directive on the right to interpretation and translation
in criminal proceedings (pdf), Commission: Press release (pdf), Commission: Memo (pdf). See also: Plan
to give suspects translation rights: Commission proposal would
provide the right to interpretation during questioning and at
trial
(European Voice, link) and Defendants' rights caught
up in EU institutional quarrel (euobserver, link): An EU diplomat commented:
"The council regrets that the commission chose to table
its own proposal, which unnecessarily duplicates our initiative
and increases the procedural time needed for a result" Council
of the European Union (27 governments): For full documentation
see: News
Online
Updated: ACTA
draft agreement: Joint
statement: MEPs deplore Council's continued secrecy on ACTA (pdf) and see: Parliament
threatens court action on anti-piracy treaty (euactiv, link): "The
European Parliament defied the EU executive today (10 March),
casting a vote against an agreement between the EU, the US and
other major powers on combating online piracy and threatening
to take legal action at the European Court of Justice.A strong
majority of MEPs (663 against and 13 in favour) today voted against
the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), arguing that
it flouts agreed EU laws on counterfeiting and piracy online."
Background: Leaked
ACTA draft reveals plans for internet clampdown - ISPs must snoop
on subscribers or face being sued by content owners (Computerworld, link).
Leaked Commission Note (pdf) and Leaked section of draft
agreement
(pdf): The EU (represented by the Commission) is taking part
in negotiations on the drafting of an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade
Agreement (ACTA). These negotiations were launched in 2007 amongst
an initial group of interested parties and then continued with
a broader group of participants; to date those include Australia,
Canada, the European Union, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New
Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States. See also:
European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) highly critical of
proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA): Press
Release
(pdf) and Opinion:
full-text
(pdf).
EU-USA: The
Spanish Presidency wants to push for a strategic agreement between
the EU and the USA in digital health-care (Spanish EU Council
Presidency, link): "The Spanish Minister of Health and
Social Policy, Trinidad Jiménez, met in Washington with
her US counterpart, Kathleen Sebelius, and highlighted the desire
of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union to push for a
strategic bilateral agreement in digital healthcare. The aim
is to create a scenario for clinical information exchange and
technical interoperability between the project promoted by the
Obama Administration and the European project." Draft
question to the Council from Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert MEP (ALDE):
Council
pushing for healthcare records share with the US? (pdf)
European Court
of Justice: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): EDPS
welcomes Court of Justice's ruling strengthening independent
position of data protection authorities (Press release, pdf): European Commission
supported by EDPS v German government: Full-text
of judgment
(pdf) and the Opinion
of the Advocate General (pdf) who advised the opposite view.
Belgium: Developments
and issues regarding Belgian regularisation policy (CIRÉ)
EU Security Research:
BAE
Systems awarded EU contract to develop organised crime database
UK: Home Affairs
Select Committee report: The National DNA
Database
(pdf): "It is currently impossible to say with certainty
how many crimes are detected, let alone how many result in convictions,
due at least in part to the matching of crime scene DNA to a
personal profile already on the database, but it appears that
it may be as little as 0.3%and we note that the reason
for retaining personal profiles on a database is so that the
person can be linked to crimes he/she commits later... it should
be easier for those wrongly arrested or who have volunteered
their DNA to get their records removed from the database."
Italy:
Harassment
against migrants and Roma people
Italy: NGOs
criticise Italian government stance on harm reduction drug policies
Spain/France:
In-depth
reports on the situation in detention centres for foreigners
UK: Home Office:
What
perceptions do the UK public have concerning the impact of counter-terrorism
legislation implemented since 2000? (link)
DUTCH PRISON
FOR BELGIANS:
Under the European Arrest Warrant and the and the Convention
on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of 29 May 2000: EU
doc no: 6921/10, pdf): "1 February 2010 saw the entry
into force of an agreement between the Kingdom of the Netherlands
and the Kingdom of Belgium, under which the Netherlands puts
at the disposal of Belgium a prison situated on Dutch territory
(in Tilburg) for the purpose of enforcing Belgian sentences according
to the rules of Belgian law." Full-text of agreement:
Convention
entre le Royaume des Pays-Bas et le Royaume de Belgique sur la
mise à disposition d'un établissement pénitentiaire
aux Pays-Bas en vue de l'exécution de peines privatives
de liberté infligées en vertu de condamnations
belges
(pdf)
EU: PRUM FRAMEWORK
DECISION ON FINGERPRINTS: "Fishing expeditions"
by large Member States leads to limits being imposed on automated
searches for fingerprints on other states' national databases:
In 2008 the Council of the European Union's Ad Hoc Group on Information
Exchange urged restraint on the number of searches: "The
varying scale of national databases, partly linked to population
size, has led experts to doubt whether the databases of the less-populated
States are able to deal with other States' searches. At times
there are even concerns that databases may be damaged by overwhelming
search volumes." (EU
doc no: 14885/rev1/08, pdf). As this has not worked the Ad Hoc Group
on Information Exchange has now laid down limits on the number
of searches to be carried out: EU
do no: 5860 rev1/10 (pdf). The big "offenders" would seem
to be Germany, Spain and Italy (not figures given for the UK).
EU Security Research:
"NeoConOpticon" blog updated, see 1) BAE
Systems awarded EU contract to develop organised crime database; 2) Droning
on: more funding for covert EU unmanned aerial vehicle programme; 3) Governed
by robots: Border Security 2010' and towards e-borders
UK: Parliamentary
Joint Human Rights Committee report: Annual
Renewal of Control Orders Legislation 2010 (pdf): "We have
serious concerns about the control order system. Evidence shows
the devastating impact of control orders on the subject of the
orders, their families and their communities."
France/Algeria: Joint
maritime surveillance and security operation
EU: European
Commission proposal to amend the Frontex Regulation: 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) (pdf) plus Impact
Assessment
(SEC 149, pdf) and Summary
of IA
(SEC 150, pdf)
UK: Operation
of police powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 and subsequent
legislation: Arrests, outcomes and stops & searches Quarterly
update to September 2009 (pdf). Of 201 people arrested under
the Terrorism Act 2000 in the year to September 2009, 42 were
arrested for non-terrorist offences and 96 were released without
charge. 200,444 people were stopped and searched.
- Full
contents of Statewatch News online with news, analysis
and documentation
- In the News carries
link to news coverage from across the EU
- What's New covers all new
items on the website
Top reports 2004-2009
See: Tony Bunyan's column in
the Guardian: View
from the EU
SPECIAL STATEWATCH
REPORT: The
Shape of Things to Come - the EU Future Group (Version.1.3) by Tony
Bunyan: 51,774 copies downloaded. The report calls for
a meaningful and wide-ranging debate before it is
too late for privacy and civil liberties. The proposals
set out by the shadowy "Future Group" set up by the
Council of the European Union include a range of highly controversial
measures including new technologies of surveillance, enhanced
cooperation with the United States and harnessing the "digital
tsunami". In the words of the EU Council presidency: "Every
object the individual uses, every transaction they make and almost
everywhere they go will create a detailed digital record. This
will generate a wealth of information for public security organisations,
and create huge opportunities for more effective and productive
public security efforts." This major new report The
Shape of Things to come (60 pages) examines the proposals of
the Future Group and their effect on civil liberties. It shows
how European governments and EU policy-makers are pursuing unfettered
powers to access and gather masses of personal data on the everyday
life of everyone on the grounds that we can all be safe
and secure from perceived threats. The Statewatch
report calls for a meaningful and wide-ranging debate
before it is too late for privacy and civil liberties.
See also ongoing: Statewatch Observatory: The Stockhom
Programme
Statewatch publication:
Border
wars and asylum crimes by Frances Webber (38 pages, pdf - 4.685 copies
downloaded: "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
EU: Major report
on the: Criminalisation
and victimisation of migrants in Europe (255 pages, pdf) directed by Salvatore
Palidda: 16,909 downloads.
EU: The dream of total data collection by Heiner Busch. Status
quo and future plans for EU information systems
Terrorist
lists" still above the law by Ben Hayes
EU:
Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit by Tony Bunyan
EU:
Returns Directive: "Against the Outrageous Directive" speech given by Yasha
Maccanico in EP
Cementing
the European state by Tony Bunyan, New emphasis on internal security
and operational cooperation at EU level
EU-SIS Schengen Infornation
System Article 99 report by Ben Hayes
Policing
protests in Switzerland, Italy and Germany
The
surveillance of travel in the EU where everyone is a suspect by Tony Bunyan
EU: Statewatch
Report: Arming
Big Brother: new research reveals the true costs of Europe's
security-industrial complex by Ben Hayes (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)
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
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).
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)
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)
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