The UK Government should thank the European Court of Human Rights

January 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Frederick Cowell

Image © ex_libris_gul

Following the European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) ruling about Abu Qatada’s extradition the anti-Human Rights Act (HRA) brigade have been out in force. In his recent speech about the ECHR David Cameron claimed that the ECHR was in danger of undermining public support for civil liberties. This claim was accurate in large part because the same right wing newspapers that support him have been busy whipping themselves up into a self-righteous rage about the EHRA.

The UK government has received good results from the ECHR recently (not that you would know it) as they ruled that the system of whole life tariffs was not a form of torture. Forty six prisoners in the UK are currently serving whole life sentences and following an application from Jeremy Bamber, Peter Moore and Douglas Vinter (who are between them guilty of murdering nearly a dozen murders) the ECHR ruled that it was not “inhuman and degrading” for them to die in jail. The ECHR also approved the UK’s policy of deportation with assurances (assuming reliable guarantees against torture are given) in spite of the policy being strongly criticised by Amnesty International.  Needless to say these cases are nowhere to be found in the anti-HRA pieces from Michael Burleigh in the Daily Mail, Philip Johnston in the Daily Telegraph and Douglas Murray in the Daily Express. Instead the ECHR is presented as a judicial factory producing ‘outrages’ to be inflicted on the UK, even though the government wins the vast majority of applications to the court. Additionally these critics do not mention that Abu Qatada has not been convicted, let alone faced a criminal trial, in the UK. Whilst he is definitely unpleasant and has been involved with terrorist organisations, the fact that neither the Crown Prosecution Service nor the Director of Public Prosecution has been able to bring him to trial over a ten year period, despite numerous changes in the law, is illustrative of how the problem is much wider than ‘activist judges’ at the ECHR.

Read more of this post

Filed under Conservatives, Democracy, Europe, Media, Liberty Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

100 years of the War on Drugs

January 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 Oliver Hotham

Image © World Economic Forum


100 years ago today, as the opium trade reached new levels of notoriety for its criminal activity, the USA and 12 other countries signed the 1912 International Opium Convention, which stated that:

The contracting Powers shall use their best endeavours to control, or to cause to be controlled, all persons manufacturing, importing, selling, distributing, and exporting morphine, cocaine, and their respective salts, as well as the buildings in which these persons carry such an industry or trade.

This was the first international agreement to limit the trafficking of narcotics, and while the intentions of the “War on Drugs” seemed noble and right, it has implicated the United States and its allies in innumerable crimes against humanity.

The War on Drugs would be, to a certain degree, acceptable, at least morally consistent, if it were not mired in hypocrisy. We support, for example, the corrupt government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as part of the war against the Taliban, but the president’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been implicated in the Afghan heroin and opium trade, the products of which fuel heroin addiction around the world. Read more of this post

Filed under America, Liberty Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Calculus of Intervention

January 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Andrew Noakes

Image © Maggie Osama

With the NATO campaign in Libya now over and the reputation of humanitarian intervention restored, why has the West failed to use military force to challenge the Syrian regime as it brutalises its own people? It is clear that the responsibility to protect is universal so, if we intervened to stop a slaughter in the besieged towns of Benghazi and Misrata, then why not in Homs and Hama?

Of course, there are some on the left who will interpret any example of Western inconsistency as proof of the hollowness of our liberal ideals. But there is a calculus at play here. Libya was an easy intervention. The Gaddafi regime lacked reliable international and regional allies and the crisis was not complicated by regional, sectarian, or ethnic divisions within Libyan society (although post-Gaddafi Libya may prove to be a different story). Nor was the internal violence likely to develop into a wider, regional conflict. It was a war of national liberation, confined to Libya and fought with overwhelming international and regional support. Read more of this post

Filed under Democracy, Foreign policy, Liberty, Middle East Tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

Winter of Discontent: Arab Winter

December 22, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Georgia Lewis

Image © The Advocacy Project

Image © The Advocacy Project

The picture of a woman in Cairo with her abaya torn away by men who do not deserve the respect of a soldier job title has gone global. With her face covered but her blue bra on display, her awful humiliation has gone global largely thanks to Twitter and Facebook, two tools which have played a massive role in disseminating information on the events of the Arab Spring.

She has not been identified but she has become an important symbol of the events in Egypt and the wider Arab world. The role of women, the role of powerful images and the role of social media cannot be underestimated and the blue bra photograph captures all this graphically and shockingly. The photograph also demonstrated that the military is not in any hurry to relinquish power so that the people of Egypt can enjoy a sane and functioning democracy. It also flies in the face of the tired myth that the Arab world is not ready for democracy. Egypt’s military may not be keen to give power to the people but nobody can deny the people want power and are prepared to fight hard for it.  Read more of this post

Filed under Democracy, Foreign policy, Liberty, Middle East Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Demanding an End to World Hunger

December 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Mohammed Mesbahi

All the commentary from expert analysts about the crumbling financial system is almost useless to understand what is really happening in the world today. Countless articles are written about how to fix the economy and restore growth to the system, but they are only relevant to a system that was never sustainable and is now coming to an end. What we call the ‘system’ has become so complicated that it appears to have a life of its own, and not even the most sophisticated banker understands what is going on anymore. Few economists or politicians speak in terms that mean anything to the ordinary person who is struggling to find or keep a job, make ends meet and provide for their family. But at the same time, something profoundly new is happening throughout the world that requires a much simpler way of looking at things if we are to comprehend what it means.

The protests now taking place in almost every country are a magnificent sight, but we must look closely at what it means when we cry for justice. There are many stories now being reported about the accumulating wealth of the richest people in the midst of a worsening economic crisis, which of course leads to rightful anger against bankers and the unbridled greed that has been sanctified in modern-day society. But which is the greater sin: the banker’s bonus, or the fact that thousands of people are dying from hunger each day in a world of plenty? The global economy is sinking and so the people’s voice is rising, but why are there no demonstrations in our city squares when people are dying from hunger? Read more of this post

Filed under Africa, America, Culture, Foreign policy, Liberty Tagged with , , , , , ,

Why the left shouldn’t defend Cuba

November 23, 2011 by 4 Comments

 Peter Bolton

Heroes of the Left? Image © a-birdie

Since the 1959 communist revolution in Cuba, several left-wing commentators have spoken favorably about the Castro regime. In the world of entertainment, for instance, Oliver Stone, Sean Penn and Michael Moore have all made gestures of praise toward the island’s political leadership. Moore’s 2007 film Sicko showered praise onto the Cuban healthcare system while both Penn and Stone have commended the Castro regime and visited the island to meet with Communist Party officials, in Stone’s case to research for a documentary film.

Details of Cuba’s authoritarianism have come back into the public consciousness recently following news reports about the decision by Raul Castro to liberalize the island’s property laws. The move might be taken by some to be evidence of the regime’s reform-minded tendencies but though the policy changes are to be welcomed, reading the details about the plight of the Cuban people shows how misguided it is to defend Cuba as a bastion and exemplar of left-wing ideas.

  Read more of this post

Filed under Democracy, Economy, Education, Liberty, Media Tagged with , ,

Winter of Discontent: The Hetherington Occupation

November 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Students seize the Hetherington Building at Glasgow University. Image © Hannah TaitHannah Tait

Hannah Tait

From February to August this year, I spent a lot of time inside an ordinary-looking Glasgow townhouse at 13 University Gardens – but the space created within those walls was far from ordinary.
The Hetherington Research Club (formerly the post-graduate club at the University of Glasgow) had shut its doors, depriving the academic community of an important space on campus for socialising and discussion. On the 1st of February 2011 a group of anti-cuts activists entered the disused building through an open fire door, and the Free Hetherington was born. For seven months, the building was occupied 24/7 (with the exception of one eventful day) and became a hub of activism in Glasgow.
But the space that grew within those walls was about more than anti-cuts activism, although that was the core which held disparate opinions together. It was about discussion and debate – I rarely walked through the door without being drawn into an interesting conversation – and it was about trying in our own way to make a safe space and a better world. Of course it was not a utopia; we walk into any space carrying the experiences and the conditioning of the society we inhabit. But it was, more than any other place that I have been, a place where people were prepared to challenge injustice and unacceptable behaviour. We didn’t always get it right, but we always tried. It gave me the courage to stand up for myself and to shout my feminism more loudly. It exposed us all to new ideas and perspectives and it challenged us constantly. Read more of this post

Filed under Democracy, Education, Liberty Tagged with , , ,

Has the Arab Spring run dry?

October 1, 2011 by 2 Comments

(c) Al Jazeera English

Georgia Lewis

News of Bahrain’s special security court jailing 13 doctors for 15 years each for various crimes against the state after they treated wounded protesters in the anti-government uprisings has spread across the world, although it has not been met with too much in the way of public condemnation by world leaders.

As well as the doctors being jailed for doing their job of treating patients without checking their religious or political affiliations, two more got 10 years, five were sentenced to five years and a protester has been given the death penalty on charges of killing a police officer. Yet it’s the despotic leaders of Syria, Libya and Egypt who have received more criticism from supposedly democracy-loving nations. Read more of this post

Filed under Democracy, Foreign policy, Liberty, Middle East Tagged with

‘But what then is capital punishment if not the most premeditated of murders?’

September 23, 2011 by Leave a Comment

(c) G.Goepfert/Amnesty International

Ben Rowan

The execution of convicted murderer Troy Davis took place on the morning of the 22nd of September in Jackson prison, Georgia, via lethal injection. Davis was arrested in 1989 for killing an off duty police officer, Mark MacPhail, and sentenced in 1991 to death.

The case has had overwhelming publicity and the execution has been condemned by the European Union, NAACP, Amnesty International and various support groups across the world. His supporters number in their thousands and include prominent figures such as Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI and former FBI director William Sessions. Read more of this post

Filed under America, Democracy, Liberty Tagged with

Four men arrested over Bedfordshire ‘slaves’

September 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

(c) AndrewHA

Katy Owen

The latest case of human trafficking to hit the headlines highlights the complexities of trafficking and slavery in this country. It also demonstrates how the government’s new strategy against human trafficking is far off the mark of what is needed to tackle the issue.

The charity Stop the Traffik defines trafficking as the act of being deceived or taken against your will and transported into slavery for any kind of exploitation. Importantly, it says, trafficking can be across borders or within a particular country. Read more of this post

Filed under Democracy, Liberty Tagged with

← Older posts

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 1,004 other followers