Human rights laws ‘protecting terrorists’


Previous minister of Defence Ben Wallace protests at the ‘lunacy’ of rules such as ECHR
September 2023

Ben Wallace, the former Defence Secretary, has a piece on the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph (13 September 2023) under the headline “Wallace: Human rights laws protecting terrorists” written by Isabel Oakeshott and Daniel Martin.  The sub heading is “Ex-minister attacks ‘lunacy’ of rules such as the ECHR that block rendition of suspects’. 

He claims that human rights laws including the ECHR have become a serious risk to national security and are thwarting efforts to stop terrorists.  The two main reasons the ex-minister gives are that one, they are unable to kill individuals, usually by drone and two, we are unable to render people across borders or arrest people in countries whose police forces are unacceptable, means that we are more often than not forced into taking lethal action than actually raiding and detaining.  He says we are unable to carry out raids such as the US did to kill Osama bin Laden. 

It is an extraordinary article for a senior politician to have agreed to appear in a national newspaper.  Firstly, it is of a piece with a decade of fairly relentless attacks on the Human Rights Act (HRA) and the various promises to abolish or rewrite it which never seem to appear.  The benefits of the act for ordinary people in their quest of justice against the state does not get a mention. 

But the truly extraordinary part of it is the clear statement about wanting to murder people in a foreign country as a form of foreign policy.  We are quick to condemn foreign states such as Russia who attempted to murder a man in Salisbury for example, but seemingly, it is perfectly OK for us to murder a suspected terrorist in a foreign land.  In any event, how certain are we that the proposed victim is a terrorist and is plotting to carry out an attack here?  Last week, a suspected terrorist escaped Wandsworth prison and stayed away for 4 days with the finest of our security and police forces combing the country for him and with his photo on the front pages of our newspapers. In the events leading up to the Iraq war, our government and their security advisers were telling us that Sadam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons evidence of which was never found.

How certain can we be therefore that an attempt to murder a suspected terrorist in a foreign land would be successful in finding and killing the right person? Terrorist take great pains not to carry mobile phones and regularly move around. What about deaths of family members and possibly children?

There is also the moral point.  We are a member of the UN’s Security Council and as such, we should be promoting the law abiding behaviour in our and other’s international relations.  It is true that this is frequently ignored by a variety of nations, nevertheless, it would be difficult for us to adopt the high moral ground if we go around the world killing suspected terrorists ‘plotting against Briton’.

The article is full of dubious reasoning and bellicosity.  “Somalia may say you can blow up al-Shabab” he writes “because they’re our enemy as well, but if we go in and they surrender, we get told their detention pathway isn’t compliant [with ECHR law]. It’s a ridiculous catch-22 position, which doesn’t reflect the threat”.     

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Wine and rights


The Wine Society (UK) is paying special attention to human rights in its supply chain

September 2023

The Wine Society was formed in 1874 and flourishes today with many thousands of members and an enviable reputation for seeking out and supplying quality wines from around the world. In its latest newsletter to members (Issue 12, Autumn 2023) it has an article Announcing the fair treatment of workers in our supply chain explaining what the Society proposes to do to ensure human rights are observed throughout the supply chain.

Globalisation has produced many advantages for consumers in the West. Products and produce from around the world have arrived on our shores and into our high street stores to enable people to enjoy cheap clothes, out of season produce and a wide range of manufactures which, if made in the UK, would be many times more expensive.

But globalisation has come with some serious disadvantages for those far away who toil in the fields or work in sweatshops for minimal pay.  They have no rights, and suffer many abuses which would be unacceptable in the UK.  For many this is out of sight and some companies like it that way.  Recently, companies – and quite respectable (?) high street names – have shown to be using cotton picked by Uyghur forced labour in China.  We can remember the Rani Plaza collapse in Bangladesh in which several thousand died working in a vast sweatshop producing cheap clothes for several well-known high street UK stores. 

Many firms now pay attention to the issue of how things are produced and the labour abuses happening far away across the world.  However, after every incident which is discovered, we see those same firms express shock at the revelations and claim in written statements (noticeably: few actually appear on screen to face interviews) that they knew nothing and state their company policy which is that they take seriously the issue of human rights. 

The Wine Society is cautious in its approach recognising that policing what growers and vignerons do in far flung parts of the world is not easy. Their requirements include no use of forced labour or children; promoting worker participation; decent standards of accommodation where this is offered; paying a living wage and recognising the rights of local communities to clean air and water. They are about to roll out an independent whistle blowing line across their entire global supply chain. They are also supporting The Sustainable Wine Roundtable a global collaborative platform. The Society’s overall aim is to have the world’s most socially and environmentally sustainable wine supply chain by 2030.

This is a welcome development and a recognition that importers in the UK have a direct responsibility to ensure, as far as they can, that those producing their wares in far away places are treated decently and their human rights observed. It is all too easy to place a contract with a supplier containing well-meaning clauses which in turn sub-contracts to someone else and so on down the chain ultimately to families living in squalor, paid a pittance – if that is they are paid at all – with children working instead of going to school, all with complete deniability.

And the Society supplies very good wine.

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Talk about Palestine


‘Children of the Stone City’

September 2023

PAST EVENT

There will be a presentation by Beverley Naidoo, the author of Children of the Stone City concerning the life of children in the occupied territories. It will be held at the Methodist Church in Salisbury on Saturday 9th September starting at 2pm. Further details on the Salisbury Concern for Israel website https://www.sarumconcern.org. Tomorrow.

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The UK and Israel


UK trying to frustrate the International Court of Justice in the Israel/Palestine conflict

August 2023

The UK, in common with some other western countries such as Germany and the US, is trying to block the ICJ from considering international humanitarian law matters in relation to the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians.  A legal opinion has been leaked enabling us to see the reasoning behind the government’s position.  The opinion, if genuine, claims it is ‘inappropriate for [the UK] to insert itself into a bilateral dispute without Israel’s consent’.  The most obvious thing to say is that such consent is unlikely ever to be given. 

Another argument in the opinion is that it will hamper prospects for relaunching Israel/Palestine negotiations, prospects for which are vanishingly small.  The two state solution collapsed in 2014, nearly a decade ago.  The opinion does not seem to take into account recent developments in Israel and the statements by Itamar ben Gvir, leader of the ‘Jewish Power’ party and currently the National Security Minister, who said ‘his rights in the occupied West Bank are more important than those of Palestinians’.  This and similar remarks in interviews have led to condemnation by the US government.  Gvir has also fallen out with Bella Hadid, the super model who repeated his remarks in a blog.

Violence has increased in Israel and the process of seizing land and destroying Palestinian/Arab communities and land continues at a fast and increasing pace. 

The opinion also claims that this is a ‘bi-lateral dispute’ which may be true but it has not hindered the UK government and other members of NATO, from interfering in a ‘bilateral dispute’ which happens to be called Ukraine.  

The ICJ is the main UN judicial organisation and it played a key role in ending the apartheid system being run by the South African government in Namibia.  It also forced an unwilling UK government to open talks with Mauritius concerning the Chagos Islands and the forced removal of its people. 

Whether the ICJ will follow through on this and endorse the reports by a range of human rights organisations alleging Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians amounts to apartheid remains to be seen.  Both the government and the Labour party seem blind to the actions of the Israeli government in the occupied territories. Both steadfastly refuse the accept the considerable evidence of apartheid in the country. No reasons have been provided. For Labour, it is possibly a legacy of the bruising anti-semitism allegations the party received under the previous leader of the party.

Sources: BBC; Guardian; 972 Magazine

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Visit by Mohammed bin Salman


A visit to the UK by Mohammed bin Salman planned for October

August 2023

It has been confirmed today that a visit is planned to the UK by Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) of Saudi Arabia in October and the prime minister Rishi Sunak has apparently phoned him to discuss details. It places the UK into something of a quandary and is a test of our adherence to moral standards in our international relations.

It was only in October 2018 that the journalist Jamal Khashoggi entered the embassy in Istanbul where he was murdered and dismembered. It is highly likely that MBS ordered the assassination. It caused an international outcry at the time and a British minister referred to it as an act of ‘appalling brutality’. This was not an isolated incident which could perhaps be explained as an overzealous act of a group of secret police. The human rights situation in Saudi is grave. Executions have increased since MBS came to power. Between 2010 and 2021, 1,243 were executed and in 2022, at least 147. 81 were executed in one day last year. The six bloodiest years have occurred since he came to power. The process is highly secretive and torture is practised to secure confessions. Minors are also killed.

Human rights organisations are banned. Critics of the regime are arrested. Women are not free although after a long campaign they are now allowed to drive.

Bin Salman has used the enormous wealth of the country to try and ‘buy’ a better image and we have commented before on the purchase of Newcastle United Football Club as part of a widespread programme of sportswashing. Football, golf, tennis, boxing, F1 motorsport and recently, some high profile purchases of footballers. Sporting organisations and sportsmen have happily accepted the largesse with seemingly no qualms about its source. Slowly, the issue of sportswashing has made it out of the back of newspapers into the news pages. It does seem however, that there are no misgivings or revulsion evident from sports people who are only too keen to take the money.

The vast wealth of the country, its immense reserves of oil and its desire to acquire weapons, means it has considerable influence over governments like the UK. There is thus a conundrum: we simply need Saudi wealth in a variety of ways and so we are forced to deal with an odious regime. We cannot it seems, afford to be squeamish. They can buy their weapons from a variety of countries and invest their wealth other than in, or via, the City of London. To pretend to be concerned about their human rights record, the executions, the treatment of women and their activities which have so immiserated Yemen, is not an option. Sporting people and their millions of fans are mostly unconcerned so why should we? Roll out the red carpet – which after all the French have done – arrange meetings with the King, hold our noses and sign the deals so vital for our economy. Is this where we are?

Money or morals?

The government has to choose: money or morals? It is likely to choose the former. They might wrap it up in claims of realpolitik but the power and immensity of the money – a wall of cash estimated to be around £1tn – is the deciding factor.

The UK was one of those countries which, sometimes reluctantly because of our continuing activities in the colonies, took a leading role in promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights after the war. For a time we had an ‘ethical’ foreign policy. But it seems that slowly but surely, the need for business has led to the watering down of policies and quietly dropping our commitments to some kind of moral compass in our dealings with countries who flagrantly abuse the human rights of their citizens. Outrage is expressed at the treatment of the Rohingya in Burma but little seems to happen to stop insurers enabling jet fuel for example being sold to the regime. More outrage was expressed at the treatment of the Uyghurs in China but little action followed and cotton produced by forced labour still finds its way onto our shelves. Public outrage – let it go quiet – then back to business as usual. Is this the new policy? Will human rights be mentioned when MBS visits? It is doubtful.

Perhaps the visit by MBS represents the final curtain call on any claim we might have had for moral leadership to the rest of the world.

Sources: Channel 4; Reprieve; Amnesty International

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Book burning v. human rights


Riots and protests over burning of the Qur’an in Denmark and Sweden but few protests about China’s dreadful treatment of the Uyghurs

August 2023

Various individuals in Sweden and Denmark have sparked serious unrest and violence as a result of burning the holy book and a considerable degree of opprobrium has been heaped on both countries. The prime minister of Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador last month. News of the burnings have featured in the media for some time. The Swedish embassy in Baghdad was stormed and the country’s flag was burned in Pakistan. Although the burnings have been carried out by a small number of individuals, they have generated considerable fury among Muslims and caused a degree of concern in the Nordic countries who wish to maintain the right to free speech and protest.

Clearly it is upsetting for Muslims to see a book they cherish being treated in this way.

Uyghurs

In China the appalling treatment of the Uyghur people continues apace. There is no word to describe the actions of the Chinese since the Uyghurs are not subject to genocide. Mostly, they survive the treatment they are subject to. However, the persecution has intensified over the past few years. There is forced sterilisation, the demolition of thousands of mosques, and children taken from their parents. They have been isolated from the rest of the world and the only means of communication was shortwave radios and these too have been seized. The Qur’an is seized wherever it is found. The entire population is subject to repression and detention in so-called ‘re-education’ centres where torture and physical violence is routine. Over a million are held in these camps and access to the region is strictly controlled by the Chinese government. Thousands are arrested on spurious grounds for ‘crimes’ of being a Muslim, sending messages or texts with quotations from the Qur’an or for having more than three children.

There is an attempt – seemingly a successful attempt – to extinguish the culture of the Uyghurs in what amounts to cultural genocide. Children are not allowed to be given names such as Fatima or Aisha because they are deemed ‘too Muslim’. The region is subject to heavy surveillance making any kind of social contact almost impossible.

What has been surprising however is the relative silence from the very same countries who are angry about the book burnings and who made a huge fuss about the Satanic verses. It would be expected that in the face of the appalling treatment of mainly Muslims in Xinjian, there would be an outcry of deafening intensity. Indeed, in 2019, when mainly western countries tried to get a UN motion to allow independent observers into Xinjiang, it was countries – mostly Moslem countries – like Saudi, Algeria and Egypt who blocked it. The contrast between the response to the burning of a handful of Qur’an in Stockholm and the seizing of what may be tens of thousands of copies in Xinjiang is remarkable. It is difficult to explain it. Some suggest it is China’s increasing investment in these countries which is leading to a reluctance to make much noise. This hasn’t prevented these same countries engaging in critical activities against western countries who are also significant investors so that explanation seems unlikely.

It is astonishing that in the 21st Century we are witnessing one of the world’s biggest crimes against humanity, yet very little is made of it. Countries who might be thought to have sympathy through a shared religion with the Uyghurs, are strangely silent. A huge fuss is made of a few individuals burning the holy book but the much more systematic attempt to annihilate a kindred culture and incarcerating over a million individuals in the process, engenders little protest.

Testimony from survivors in this piece from Substack [added 21 August 2023]

Sources: Observer, Time, Washington Post, International Bureau of Investigative Journalists, CAAT, BBC

[Readers might wish to know of a recently published book Waiting to be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide, by Tahir Hamut Izgil, published by Jonathan Cape]

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Group news


Salisbury group’s summer party

August 2023

In place of a meeting in August, we hold a summer party and this is a photo of this year’s. We were lucky with the weather as rain was forecast but it held off until quarter an hour of so after everyone had left!

The Salisbury group is the only Amnesty group in Wiltshire sad to report and if anyone from Wiltshire or north Dorset would like to join us we would be pleased to welcome them. Just keep an eye on the website or on Facebook or X as it now is (Twitter) for details of our next event.

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Refugee report


Many of the boat people are from Afghanistan

August 2023

The tragic events in the English Channel this week have served to draw attention to the fact that most of the asylum seekers affected by the disaster were from Afghanistan. This might invite the question: “But I thought that Afghans were the one group for whom official arrangements to come here had been made?” Indeed, there are two official processes by which Afghans can come to this country to escape persecution. One is the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy, designed to help those who had been involved with the UK administration pre-Taliban, and several thousand have arrived through this route. Asylum seekers arriving now may have worked with the British and been left behind or not, but clearly most feel threatened by any connection they may have had with the old regime. The Afghan Citizen Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) was designed for such cases.

So how has the ACRS been performing? A new report by the Refugee Council gives a gloomy assessment. The plan was to take 5,000 refugees in the first year and 20,000 in total. So far, 54 Afghans have arrived under ACRS; many are waiting in Pakistan for arrangements to be made to bring them over. Accommodation in the UK is not available however and, as the report notes, those 9,000 Afghans currently being accommodated in hotels here will be ejected at the end of the month to find their own places or become homeless.

Afghans arriving via the Channel will be sent back

Hence the large number of Afghans arriving on small boats. In the last year 8,429 have come by this route, of whom 96 have been given leave to stay. Of course, under the new Illegal Migration Act, none will be given that right and will in theory be returned to Afghanistan or a third country like Rwanda.

The report goes on to note that no method has been established to help reunite the families of asylum seekers with those who are here, despite assurances  from the government.

The Guardian has published an article by the Council’s chief executive, Enver Solomon, which gives more detail.

UPDATE: Shortly after posting this, the BBC Radio 4 programme ‘World at One’ devoted a lengthy package to this item.

AH

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Arms sales and human rights


Campaign Against the Arms Trade highlights UK arms sales to autocratic regimes

August 2023

In the last post discussing the possibility of the UK leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, currently being discussed in government, we commented on a lack of concern about arms sales and the activities of resource companies in destabilising countries. This led to conflict and millions suffering and being displaced, some of whom ended up at Calais much to the ire of politicians and parts of the press.

The latest issue of CAAT News (Issue 266, Summer 2023) puts some flesh on the bones of our (and other country’s) arms sales and where they are being sold. Surprisingly, sales sales by the Soviet Union and China have actually declined and in the case of Russia because of the war in Ukraine which is consuming large amounts of military materiel. Chinese sales have dropped by around a quarter according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) because of possible ‘stockpiling’. By contrast, UK sales doubled in 2022 to around £8.5bn. These facts somewhat dent the argument that if we don’t sell the arms, someone else will. Some sales are identified by Single Individual Export Licences (SIELs) where it is possible to know what and to whom weapons are being sold. The biggest recipient by value is Qatar due in the main to the sale of Typhoon aircraft. However, just over half of arms sales are by ‘open licence’ which allows for unlimited exports.

The dismal state of human rights in Qatar received a degree of publicity during the World Cup. The kafala system of employment is still in place in which migrant workers are tied to their employers. Wage theft is widespread. Women are second class citizens and those under 25 must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel, study or work in government jobs. Women fleeing violent domestic abuse are returned home by the police. Freedom of expression is curtailed. Same sex relationships are a crime.

Similar considerations apply to arms sales to Saudi Arabia another big market for UK arms. These arms have been used in the war in Yemen – currently subject to an uneasy peace – and which has contributed to the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. Just about every aspect of human rights misery has been inflicted on the country whether it’s the effects of the war and bombing, disease and starvation, activities of the Houthi rebels including the use of torture. Human rights in Saudi itself are extremely poor with 81 people executed in one day in March 2022. Women have reduced rights, torture and forced confessions are commonplace and freedom of expression is severely curtailed.

CAAT has attempted to halt our activities in aiding the Saudis but sad to report, have lost their case in the Divisional Court hearing in June. The reasoning of the judges is highly questionable and in some instances, hard to credit. The Saudis’ Coalition Joint Incident Assessment Team (JIAT) has frequently failed to investigate alleged incidents of violations of International Humanitarian Law in the Yemen war which has allowed the government to argue that that there was insufficient evidence to accept violations were even possible, despite evidence that there had been from a variety of NGOs.

The government also argued that to pursue allegations would offend the Saudis and expend valuable diplomatic capital. The Saudis’ failure to investigate alleged violations and their sensitivity to criticism was sufficient for the judges to dismiss the case.

Are UK’s ‘rigorous and robust policies’ a sham?

The government is often quoted as saying they have a ‘rigorous and robust’ policy of export controls. The evidence shows otherwise. The UK has grown its sales and is providing arms to a variety of unstable countries and countries run by despots of varying kinds, seemingly with no concern for the welfare and rights of the citizens of those countries. Open licences allow us to export arms to Turkey for example where the government has for years carried on a war of brutal repression against the Kurdish minority including the targeting of civilians. The US Congress is reluctant to allow sales of F-16 fighters because of Turkey’s frequent violations of Greece’s airspace, its repressive policies and president Erdoğan’s refusal to allow Sweden to join NATO. No such considerations apply to the UK which in addition to a massive SIEL of £452m, has granted an unlimited number of open licences.

It seems as though there is little connection now between morality or human rights with the desire to support and turn a blind eye to the sale of weapons to whomsoever asks for them. Appeals to the judiciary end in failure with judges only too willing to swallow government arguments of the most specious kind. The UK’s desire to allow and support arms sales is a blot on the country’s reputation.

Sources: mostly CAAT. Amnesty and HRW

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Exiting the European Court possible


Some Conservative politicians again calling for the UK to exit the European Court

August 2023

The issue of the small boat crossings continues to generate considerable passions amongst many in the Conservative party in particular and in sections of the media. This week, the first of the asylum seekers arrived on the barge, Bibby Stockholm, moored at Portland with many local protests, concerns about fire safety and legal protests in train. The response to the protests and appeals from the deputy chair of the Conservative party, Lee Anderson, broke new ground when he said that if they weren’t happy with the accommodation they should ‘f–k off back to France.’ When interviewed on GB News he declined to withdraw the remark and he has received support from others in the party.

Part of the frustration that some feel is possibly based on the misunderstanding about the Court and its relationship with Europe. Brexit was largely based on a desire to regain our sovereignty and the fact that the Court has nothing to do with the EU has come as a surprise and disappointment to those who believed it did. When the Court stepped in to stop the first flight to Rwanda a year ago from Boscombe Down airfield (a mile or so away from where this is being written) it generated considerable fury and with it the threat to leave the aegis of the Court.

If we did leave the Court, we would join Belarus and Russia, hardly exemplars of sound government or decent human rights. It would, as one of the key proponents of the Court in the ’50s, be a great blow to our international standing. There are many in the Conservative party who recognise this.

In many respects, the problem of Channel crossings is as a result of successful policies elsewhere to prevent other forms of crossing. Channel ports are now surrounded with razor wire and boarding and aeroplane is now a major exercise in logistics and checking of details. Legal routes barely exist and the ability of someone to claim asylum in their own country is all but impossible. Getting on a boat is almost the only way.

The ECHR is a threat to British democracy

Daily Telegraph, 10 August

In previous posts we have commented on many aspects of the government’s policy and how exporting people to Rwanda – tried and abandoned by Israel – will be of limited utility. Hundreds will be deported, if it comes into being, while the backlog is in the tens of thousands. Ascension Island is also being rumoured: another expensive and impractical solution.

On 18 July, the government passed the Illegal Migration Bill which means those who arrive by crossing the Channel will not be able to claim asylum. This is likely to be a breach of the Refugee Convention, hence the call to exit the ECHR.

Such is the desire of those to escape war or persecution that threats to send them to Rwanda or place them on a barge off the south coast are unlikely to be a deterrent. The continued failure to stem the flow of crossings represents a major political problem for the government. Oafish comments by the party’s deputy chair are in a way a symptom of the frustration felt in the face of this huge, and in many respects insoluble problem.

It is a pity that the connections between causes and results is not discussed more. The coup in Niger is the latest example of a desire to grab mineral resources. Western countries along with China and Russia, are desperate to secure supplies of these resources and the rights of people who get in the way are nearly always ignored. We are happy for the City of London for example to fund companies and to enable the vast wealth to be routed through the city. We pay little attention to the ‘front end’ so to speak and the activities of corporations in their thirst for rare earths, oil, gold, uranium or other commodities. The resulting conflicts and displacement of peoples, some of whom end up on the northern coast of France, suddenly results in angst and furious editorials in our tabloids. A man reaps what he sows as the Bible tells us. Perhaps if government spent more time concerning itself with the activities of our mining and resource companies then fewer would be forced from their homes and land, dispossessed or otherwise maltreated and fewer would end up at Calais and thence onto a boat. Fewer then would need to f–k of back to France.

UPDATE: 12 August 2023. Migrants taken off the barge because of the risk of Legionnaires disease (11th). Ascension Island no longer an option it is reported.

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