In the News - Archive 2000-2001

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December 2001

Conference: "The Anti-terrorism package: New legislation in the EU", Academy of European Law, Trier: 25 - 26 January 2002: Details

List of new EU institutions: List

Laeken Declaration, 15 December 2001: Text  Full Laeken press release: Text (pdf)

Three reports on police technology and equipment (with thanks to: cryptome.org)

1. Less Lethal Technologies 2. Alternative Approaches 3. Public Order Equipment

UK: "Policing a new century: Blueprint for reform". White Paper on major reforms of the police: Police (1MB, pdf)

November 2001

European Commission's anti-hacking proposal for "attacks against information systems": Proposal

UK National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) publishes its "threat assessments" for 2001: NCIS

UK government plans new law for the retention of all telecommunications data for use by the law enforcement agencies: Report

Italy: police in Sicily mark Sudanese "illegals" with numbers: Report

October 2001

New laws & practices affecting civil liberties and rights after 11 September - reactions at national level:

Belgium:Ligue des droits de l'Homme (The Belgian League of Human Rights): "Deny terrorism a second victory"

France: Open letter to the French Parliament - Fifteen groups write on "Open letter" to protest at the dangers to civil liberties in proposed laws: Open letter

Amnesty International - Europe: Amnesty International: Reports on the "backlash" in the aftermath of 11 September and "security and respect" for human rights in the EU: Reports

Germany: Report on new surveillance laws: Report
Statement by German human-rights organizations is on: Privacy statement (in German)
Details of proposals in Germany on the CILIP website (in German)

For full background on EU-wide developments see: Observatory in defence of freedom and democracy

September 2001

Identity cards: Information and documentation from Privacy International

Council of Europe: Cybercrime Convention to be formally adopted on 8 November: Cybercrime

UK Home Office announces new plans to stop immigration: Immigration

"Stop the TABD – Democratic Alternatives to Neoliberal Governance” , TABD Counter-summit, October 12-13, Stockholm (TABD, Transatlantic Business Dialogue): TABD

National Civil Rights Movement: International Festival for Peace, Justice and Human Rights, 10-11 November 2001: NCRM

Initial reaction of the Belgian Presidency of the EU on the issues to be considered at the planned intergovernmental conference on future structures: Press release Long-awaited European Commission White Paper on "European Governance" was published on 25.7.01: Text (pdf file)

European Commission proposal for a Directive on laying down minimum standards for third country nationals and refugees COM (2001) 510: Text (pdf file) Text (Word 97)

Campsfield hunger strikers' statement, 9 September 2001: Campsfield

Press statement on the court decision on the Oakington detention centre (pdf file): Statement

New issue of Statewatch bulletin published: Contents

August 2001

European Ombudsman receives award for work on openness and transparency: Ombudsman

July 2001

UK, London, 31 July: Public meeting organised by the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CACC) (Coalition of groups Against Terrorism Act 2000): Communities Speak Out Against Terrorist Ban

From Oldham to Bradford: The violence of the violated". The Institute of Race Relations has today published a commentary on the riots in Oldham, Burnley and Bradford: IRR (pdf file)

June 2001

Dounreay - An end to reprocessing? Dounreay

Full-text of the Turkish government's submission to the EU on its detailed plans to meet the standards for accession to the EU. This is a very large "pdf" file (2.4 MB): Turkey

May 2001

Revised text (27th version) of the Council of Europe Convention on cybercrime: CoE

How anti-trafficking initatives criminalise refugees": article from CARF (Campaign Against Racism and Fascism) no 61 (April/May 2001): CARF

Full-text of "gagging Order" signed by Jack Straw last July prohibiting anything from MI5 being used anywhere: Cryptome

April 2001

"Repeal the Official Secrets Act": the UK is one of the few countries in the EU which has a law which punishes "whistle-blowers" and journalists and others who receive "leaked" information on state activities. A campaign has been launched to repeal it: ROSA

European Commission press release on a proposal to limit the right of freedom of movement for the people in the countries scheduled to join the EU for the first seven years: Press release

European Commission programme announced for "conflict resolution", which is a mixture of the sensible and the interventionist (ie: in the EU interests): Conflict resolution

Journalists Condemn Secrecy in American Trade Talks: "Threat To Foundations of Democracy". The world's largest journalists' group, the International Federation of Journalists, today condemned a "sinister process of secrecy" that has excluded civil society groups and citizens from negotiations on a new trade agreement between 34 countries to be discussed at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec next week: FTAA

The UK government's plans to expand the police DNA database comes under attack from the Human Genetics Commission: Guardian story Human Genetics Commission: press release

Treaty of Nice, full-text: Nice (pdf)

Report for 2000-2001 from the UK Intelligence and Security Committee. The Committee says at the end of its report that: "We believe that the new Committee could examine the Official Secrets Acts and recommend changes to ensure that the Acts protect secret information." It would not bode well for the much-needed reform of the Official Secrets Act if this committee were to play a leading role. Their report in full: Report

March 2001

New version of the Council of Europe Convention on cyber-crime, dated 9 March 2001: Cyber-crime  Explanatory memorandum: Explanatory  (Word 97)

(13.3.01) New issue of Statewatch bulletin covers: EU-FBI surveillance plan/DNA database plans/the Criminal Justice and Police Bill/the Schengen Information System/Crowd control tecnologies and much more, for full contents see: Statewatch bulletin

"Global standards" for the interception of telecommunications being laid down by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and US telecommunications industry: Global surveillance standards

European Ombudsman launches inquiry into the right of officials working for the European Commission to have "freedom of expression": Inquiry

February 2001

Criminal Justice and Police Bill: CJP Bill
Liberty briefing on the Criminal Justice and Police Bill, 2nd Reading Briefing - Jan 2001, House of Commons: Liberty

Both of the following documents concern "standards" for the telecommunications industry for the planned interception of all telecommunications. The first is from European Telecommunications Standards Insitute (ESTI) dated 1999, the second is from the US telecommunications industry: 1) ETSI Standard Telecommunications security: Lawful interception (LI): Handover interface for the lawful interception of telecommunications traffic (another large pdf file): ETSI
2) "Lawfully Authorised Electronic Surveillance", standards for interception prepared by the US elecommunications industry (it is a large 495k pdf file): LAES

Interception Requirements Get Dutch Internet Providers Into Trouble, Jelle van Buuren, 15.02.2001: ISPs

DCS1000: The device formerly known as: Carnivore

The full-text of the Annual Report for 1999-2000 of the UK's Intelligence and Security Committee is on: Cryptome

UK Prime Minister and Home Secretary argue: Refugees and asylum-seekers: no, "legal migration": yes. Critics take them to task: No to refugees

Human Rights Watch comments on Greek Immigration Bill: Greece (pdf)

World Social Forum (WSF) in Porto Alegre, Brazil: details of the counter meeting to the World Economic Forum in Davros: WSF

January 2001

Report from the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service: "Anti-globalisation - a spreading phenomenon" and article from Le Monde Diplomatique on the debate: "Frightening the free marketeers"

Full-text: EU Charter of Fundamental Rights: Charter

Europe: New draft, 22.12.00: Council of Europe Convention on cyber crime attacked by civil society groups

December 2000

Treaty of Nice: NICE

November 2000

European Parliament committee investigating Echelon meets in secret:Echelon

Big Brother Awards 2000: London, 4 December: Big Brother

October 2000

NATO: New chief says it will have to plan to combat "illegal immigration": NATO

September 2000

UK: Suicide at "Dickensian" Young Offenders Institute

UK: Peoples' Tribunal into deaths in custody

UK:  Government to extend collection of DNA samples to all arrested persons, despite the failure to remove the records of thousands of people which should not be held

UK/Europe:  Special Branch pass over information on "suspected" demonstrators

EU:  Motorola to destroy Iridium satellites

UK/International: A one day public meeting on the development of global surveillance strategies for law enforcement and national security: International Forum on Surveillance by Design, 22 September, London: Programme

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