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On the 55th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the New Zealand and Australian governments are showing less and less respect for the principles of that Declaration. This issue of JustPeace looks at the issue of asylum seekers and security intelligence organisations in both countries, and shows how our rights are at risk.
You can read the
Universal Declaration of Human rights
and here are some of the key articles of the Declaration which are relevant to the treatment of Ahmed Zaoui in New Zealand, and the gross mistreatment of many more asylum seekers in Australia.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
Article 15.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
News
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It’s Inhumane to Imprison a Man for Bureaucratic Bungles
was Keith Locke’s message on 9 December.“The SIS have lost and found tapes, kept from Mr Zaoui the accusations against him, and provided biased and misleading documents to the Refugee Status Appeals Authority,” he said.
“It would be inhumane to keep Mr Zaoui in prison for several more months while the Inspector General’s review bumbles along, possibly with other crucial documents being withheld. Mr Zaoui should not have to pay in jail time for the incompetence of the SIS. He has been unjustly locked up for over a year now and should be set free immediately.”
“This first application of the Security Risk Procedure to asylum seekers has been shown to be wanting. We should move urgently to review the law that established it.”
Read
Keith’s release
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The SIS, Lies and Videotape.
On 7 December Keith Locke called for an inquiry into SIS and police mishandling of the Ahmed Zaoui investigation, following the revelation that a significant portion of audio from an interview with Mr Zaoui had gone “missing”.“I will be proposing to the Ministers for the SIS and the police that they conduct an investigation into why these two agencies are making, and continue to make, so many mistakes. There has been serious abuse of Mr Zaoui’s legal rights. The police and SIS should have told him the December 11 2002 interview was being taped, and enabled his lawyer to be present. It’s absurd for the SIS to now argue the interview is classified and can’t be shown to Mr Zaoui. Any accused is entitled to access to their own interview transcripts. This is an ominous and disturbing legal precedent, and one that bodes ill for the maintenance of basic human rights this country” Keith said.
Read
Keith’s release
- Admission that Immigration Law Needs Reviewing Welcome
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Clark not Impotent — Grieg could be ‘Outski’ Tomorrow
said Keith Locke on 2 December. “The Prime Minister is playing with words by saying she does not have the power to remove him,” said Keith.“It’s true that as Prime Minister she cannot remove Mr Greig, but as Labour Leader she does have considerable sway in Parliament – which can remove him by voting to recommend to the Governor-General that this be done. Together Labour and the Greens have a majority.
If Labour supports my motion, which will appear on the Order Paper tomorrow, Greig will be ‘outski’. ”
Keith’s (unsuccessful) motion read:
“That this House recommend to the Governor-General that the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Mr Laurie Greig, be removed from office under Section 7 of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1996 for neglect of duty, as demonstrated by his comments in the 29 November 2003 issue of New Zealand Listener which, in the opinion of this House, show that he has neglected to inform himself about the rights of asylum seekers under the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention thus preventing him from conducting reviews of Security Risk Certificates under the terms of the Immigration Act to an adequate professional standard.”
Read
Keith’s release
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Rights Removed for Christmas
. In last minute legislation rammed through the Australian Parliament just before it adjourned for three months, the government and the Labor Party combined forces to pass legislation to put ASIO (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) above the public interest and give it secret police powers.Green Senator Bob Brown commented on 5 December: “The legislation will make it an offence to discuss ASIO’s questioning of people, whether they are innocent or not, for two years after the interrogation occurs. Even media discussions of the questioning of associates in the Brigitte case are now outlawed. Repeating previous revelations that are on the public record could land a person in jail for 5 years. Politicians, lawyers, academics all face jail just for revealing that ASIO has issued a warrant. If ASIO engages in human rights abuses or unlawful conduct journalists will not be allowed to report on it for at least two years.”
“The ALP and Government rejected Greens amendments that would have inserted a public interest test and protected journalists who disclosed information which did not threaten national security. But Latham Labor has joined John Howard in this remarkable assault on fundamental rights,” Senator Brown said.
Read
Bob Brown’s relaease
and for Amnesty International’s concerns on the legislation go to ”
Concerns regarding the ASIO Legislation Amendment Bill 2003
“.
was the Green Party view on 3rd December, when the Minister for Immigration, Lianne Dalziel, said that there are flaws with the Immigration Act that need addressing.
Ms Dalziel, speaking to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee said she was “very keen” to review the section of the Act that has seen Algerian asylum seeker Ahmed Zaoui denied a summary of the evidence against him, while those designated as terrorists under the Terrorism Suppression Act are sometimes entitled to such a summary.
“It was a positive statement of intent made by the Minister,” said Green Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Keith Locke. “Now that the Government has acknowledged the law is flawed, Zaoui should be freed and the Act reviewed – in that order.”
“Ms Dalziel has the power to lift the security risk certificate at any time, and she should do so immediately. In addition, Parliament needs to review whether we even need the security risk certificate process, or if we should revert to the situation we had before 1999.”
Read
Keith’s release
Action
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Online Asylum Seekers Petition
. There is an on-line petition to Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Senator Amanda Vanstone, Minister for Immigration, calling for an end to the detention of children and separation of families. The organisers are asking for international support for this petition – if you are not Australian you can still sign the petition by putting in a comment that you support the petition as (for example) a New Zealander. Comments should be typed in the box called marked [ :optional ] To sign, go to
To End Detention of Children and Separation of Families in Australia
. For information on the appalling treatment of asylum seekers in Australia see the websites listed under Analysis,
below
. -
Zaoui Public Meeting, Christchurch, Thursday 11 December 7:45 p.m.
Christchurch East School Hall, corner Barbados and Gloucester Streets. Speakers include Mr Zaoui’s lawyers, Dr David Small (Canterbury University), and Amnesty International. -
Peace Picnic, Christchurch, Sunday, 14 December, 12 noon
. Peace Action Network Otautahi end of year social event with a BYO picnic in the Gardens. Come along to meet socially and hear back from the Aotearoa Social Forum, also feel free to bring musical instruments, photos from the year etc. Meet at the Peacock Fountain in the Botanic Gardens, Rolleston Avenue, at noon.
Analysis
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Australian Asylum Seeker Information
.
For an introduction to the issue go to
Factsheet 14 – Community Based Asylum Seekers in Australia
.For detailed information on the detention camps go to
Inside Port Hedland
.For reports from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission of Australia go to their
Asylum Seekers page
.For access to a range of information from a variety of organsiations, plus news links, got to the
Asylum Seekers in Australia page
. -
The Trade in Torture Weapons
. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”Nevertheless, the manufacture of instrucments of torture is a legal business undertaken by companies in so-called ‘civilised’ states such as the UK, which is a signatory to the Declaration. The UK also exports these instruments to states which are known for committing gross violations of this right, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. In addition to the physical pain suffered by innocent Britons recently imprisoned in Saudi Arabia was the bitter mental torture of seeing their heavy shackles stamped ‘Made in England’.
Amnesty International recently released a report on the production and trade in instruments of torture. Their press release said:
‘Governments must tackle the “pain merchants”
Governments’ failure to control the expanding trade in and use of security equipment is contributing to the incidence of torture and ill-treatment, reveals Amnesty International in its new report ‘The Pain Merchants’ published today.
The latest research by the human rights organization highlights how a wide range of police and prison services are misusing old technologies and being encouraged to use new ones despite a lack of rigorous testing to establish if they are consistent with international human rights standards:
- Steel batons with spikes have been offered for sale at a police equipment fair in China.
- A metal and plastic projectile fired by a police officer permanently injured a woman in Switzerland in March this year, leaving fragments in her face which cannot be removed for fear of paralysis. This occurred before any other means of control had been attempted.
- More than nine tonnes of leg irons (an implement banned by UN rules for the treatment of prisoners) were exported from the USA to Saudi Arabia during 2002.
- Since the report went to press AI has discovered a South African government tender notice of 31 October 2003 calling for bids for the supply to the Department of Correctional Services of leg irons and belly chains, as well as electronic riot shields.
- The UK government has authorised trials on Britain’s streets of the taser gun – which delivers a 50,000 volt electric shock through two darts fired from a distance, or can also be used up close as a stun gun. In AI’s opinion it has yet to publish full medical tests on the taser’s effects.
- Sedative chemical incapacitating agents such as the one which killed more than 120 hostages when Russian security forces ended a siege in a Moscow theatre last year should be banned unless it can be proved that people will be protected from any indiscriminate or arbitrary effects.
“Just because security equipment may be described as ‘less than lethal’ does not mean it cannot be abused, nor that it cannot injure or kill, said Brian Wood, Amnesty International’s expert on security equipment. “We are extremely concerned that in many countries devices are being authorised for use on the population without sufficient investigation of their effects on human rights.”
The USA, one of the largest manufacturers of electro-shock equipment, is one of the few governments requiring export licences to be issued for the transfer of electro-shock weapons. Yet during 2002 the US Department of Commerce authorised the exports of equipment falling into a category that includes electro-shock stun devices to 12 countries where its own State Department had reported the persistent use of torture.
The Pain Merchants also reveals that the number of companies manufacturing electro-shock weapons is increasing despite continued reports of electro-shock torture across the world in 87 countries since 1990
For the period 1999-2003, there have been at least 59 manufacturers of electro-shock weapons in 12 countries: Taiwan, China, South Korea, USA, France, Israel, Russia, Brazil, Czech Republic, Mexico, Poland and South Africa, according to Amnesty International. For the years 1990-1997 the figure was 20 manufacturers.
Few governments properly control the manufacture, sale or export of policing and security equipment. And with the few that do make an attempt, the system does not seem to work.
The European Commission has drafted a Trade Regulation which if implemented would ban the export from member states of equipment whose primary practical purpose is torture (such as leg irons and stun belts); and strictly control the export of equipment which the Commission considers has a legitimate policing use but which can be used in torture (eg electro-shock stun weapons, tear gas).
Amnesty International welcomes this move towards control, but is concerned that the draft Trade Regulation should be strengthened. Several items listed in the proposed EC Trade Regulation as having “legitimate” law enforcement use are items which AI has found to be used for torture or ill-treatment, and whose effects on human rights have been insufficiently investigated – such as stun guns, taser guns and pepper spray. AI is calling for these to be suspended pending rigorous independent investigation.
Amnesty International is calling for:
- A ban on the use, manufacture and transfer of equipment whose primary use and design is torture or ill-treatment, such as electro-shock stun belts, leg cuffs, serrated thumb cuffs and batons with spikes
- A suspension on the use, manufacture and transfer of equipment designed for security use but which evidence has shown can lend itself to torture and ill-treatment, pending a rigorous and independent inquiry into its effects – including electro-shock stun guns and tasers, and pepper spray
- A prohibition on the export and use of any equipment that may lend itself to torture and other human rights abuses unless the receiving party has established strict rules in line with international human rights standards to regulate the use of it, such as tear gas, batons and handcuffs.
The full report is available at
The Pain Merchants: Security equipment and its use in torture and other ill-treatment
.
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