APPENDIX 15
Memorandum submitted by Amnesty International
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty International is a worldwide membership
movement. Amnesty International's vision is of a world in which
every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights
instruments. In pursuit of this vision, Amnesty International's
mission is to undertake research and action focused on preventing
and ending grave abuses of these rights.
Amnesty International welcomes the opportunity
to comment on the Government's proposals for possible measures
for inclusion in a future Counter Terrorism Bill. It also welcomes
the new consultative approach taken by the Home Office in this
area, with the opportunities this brings for scrutiny by both
Parliament and civil society.
PRE-CHARGE
QUESTIONING
Amnesty International opposes any extension
of the already long maximum period of pre-charge detention under
UK anti-terrorism legislation. Amnesty opposed the previous extension
to 28 days in the 2006 Terrorism Act; the previous limit of 14
days was already too long.
Anyone held on suspicion of having committed
an extremely serious offence, such as murder, under the ordinary
UK criminal law may be held without charge for a maximum period
of four days. The period for which police are allowed to detain
people under current anti-terrorism legislation is already seven
times as long.
Prolonged detention without charge or trial
undermines fair trial rights protected by international human
rights law, including the right to be promptly informed of any
charges, the rights to be free from arbitrary detention, torture
or other ill-treatment and the presumption of innocence. It could
also have the unintended effect of increasing the likelihood that
statements obtained from a suspect could be deemed inadmissible
at trial, precisely because of the oppressive nature of the conditions
in which these statements were obtained.
Everybody who is arrested is entitled to be
charged promptly and tried within a reasonable time, in proceedings
that fully comply with internationally recognised fair trial standards,
or to be released. Arguably, the existing power to detain people
without charge for up to 28 days already violates the right to
be informed promptly of any charges. (Article 5—Right to
liberty and security—of the European Convention on Human
Rights requires in paragraph 5(2) that: "Everyone who is
arrested shall be informed promptly, in a language which he understands,
of the reasons for his arrest and of any charge against him".).
Amnesty International notes the description
by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of the practice for scrutinising
applications for a warrant of further detention between 14 days
and 28 days under the present system.[270]
In its account, the CPS states that individuals detained by the
police, who are legally represented, are "presented with
a document setting out the state of the enquiry thus far and the
future non-sensitive lines of enquiry, and can cross examine the
senior investigating officer at length to test the strength of
the application". However, this is by no means the same as
informing a suspect of the charges against them or enabling them
to challenge the case against them in a fair trial. In particular,
the fact that sensitive material put forward to support the case
for extending the period of detention is presented in the absence
of the defence, means that an individual may be unable effectively
to challenge the grounds on which they are being detained.
In light of its long-standing experience in
monitoring the right to a fair trial worldwide, Amnesty International
considers that prolonged pre-charge detention creates a climate
for abusive practices that can result in detainees making involuntary
statements, including confessions, and therefore undermines confidence
in the judicial system. Oppressive or otherwise coercive treatment
in order to obtain confessions is unlawful under domestic and
international human rights law, and undermines the individual's
right to fair trial.
Amnesty International is also concerned that
prolonged pre-charge detention risks having a disproportionate
and discriminatory impact on members of certain communities. These
communities might consider that they are being targeted because
of their real or perceived ethnic or religious identity, and that
the purpose of prolonged detention is not to bring charges against
them, but to obtain information. In this regard, Amnesty International
notes the 2003 Concluding observations of the Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination upon its examination of the
UK's 16th and 17th periodic reports under the International Convention
on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination. The
Committee drew the UK's attention to the Committee's statement
of 8 March 2002, in which it underlined the obligation of all
states to "ensure that measures taken in the struggle against
terrorism do not discriminate in purpose or effect on grounds
of race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin".[271]
25 October 2007
270 CPS paper, "Scrutiny of pre-charge detention
in terrorist cases". Back
271
Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination, CERD/C/63/CO/11, 10 December 2003, para
17. Back
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