Civil liberties - in brief (10)
01 May 2006
US/Cuba: Guantanamo tribunals of "ghost prisoners" are illegal: In late June the US Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration does not have the authority to impose trial by military commission on its prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ruling, which has been widely interpreted as a blow to the US' so-called "war on terror", does not order the closure of the gulag but does say that the proceedings have violated Geneva Conventions. The Supreme Court's decision followed a legal challenge by Salim Ahmad Hamden, who is alleged to have been Osama Bin Laden's driver, and is one of ten men facing a military tribunal. The court found that Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Convention, which provides that all detainees, whether prisoners of war, civilians or unlawful combatants, are legally entitled to humane treatment in all circumstances, applies to the US conflict with al Qaeda. In its ruling the court said: "Whether or not the [US] government has charged Hamden with an offence against the law of war, cognisable by a military commission, the commission lacks the power to proceed." The court's ruling was welcomed by the Human Rights Watch organisation, which has called for the US to close Guantanamo and its other secret prisons; Kenneth Roth, the group's executive director said "We welcome the Supreme Court's repudiation of a system that failed to meet basic standards for a fair trial." BBC News 29.6.06; Human Rights Watch press release 29.6.06. Human Rights Watch website, http://www.hrw.org
Russia/Chechnya: Russia "war on terror" violated Convention: The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled in July that Russia was responsible for the death of Khadzhi-Murat Yandiyev, one of thousands of Chechens who disappeared in the Kremlin's "war on terror". The case was brought by Fatima Bazarkina (Application no. 69481/01) on behalf of her missing son and the court found that Russia had violated Article 2 (right to life), Article 5 (right to liberty and security) and also Article 13 (right to an effective remedy); there was also a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) in respect of the applicant, Mrs Bazarkina. The judgement found Russia to be responsible for the disappearance and likely murder of Yandiyev who was probably executed by troops in 2000. A television crew had filmed General Baranov as he ordered Yandiyev to be taken away and shot; Baranov is now the commander of Russian forces in the North Caucasus. Human Rights groups believe that between 3,000 and 5,000 Chechens have "disappeared" since the second Russian invasion of Chechnya in 1999. Last February Russia was censured by the ECHR and instructed to pay compensation (135,000 euros) to eleven civilians killed by federal troops in 1999.
ECHR "Chamber Judgement Razorkina v. Russia", press release 27.7.06: http://emiskp.echr.coe.int/tkp197/view.asp?
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