The Shape of Things to Come - EU Future Group
Source: Statewatch

This analysis looks at the ideology in the Future group report, Freedom, Security and Privacy - the area of European Home Affairs. The EU is currently developing a new five year strategy for justice and home affairs and security policy for 2009-2014. The proposals set out by the shadowy ‘Future Group” include a range of extremely controversial measures including techniques and technologies of surveillance and enhanced cooperation with the United States.

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Human Rights in Areas Affected by the South Ossetia Conflict. Special Mission to Georgia and Russian Federation
Source: Council of Europe

From Executive Summary:

Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg and his delegation visited Vladikavkaz, Tskhinvali, Gori, Tbilisi and Moscow from 22 to 29 August 2008 in order to assess the human rights situation in the areas affected by the South Ossetia conflict. His mission was about human rights and humanitarian protection and he did not go into other political issues. He talked with a great number of displaced persons and other victims. He also met leading representatives of the governments and international organisations and cooperated closely with the Ombudsmen.

Closing Guantánamo: From Bumper Sticker to Blueprint
Source: Center for Strategic & International Studies

During his first week in office, the next president should announce the date for closure of Guantánamo as a detention facility in conjunction with announcing the establishment of a new policy. Implementation of this new policy would be charged to a blue-ribbon panel of eminent Americans tasked to review the files on all remaining Guantánamo detainees. The duties of the panel would include categorizing all detainees to be released or transferred to the custody of another government or, alternatively, to be held for prosecution in the U.S. criminal justice system, whose record in international terrorism cases far outshines that of the Guantánamo military commissions. Since 2001, the U.S. criminal justice system has convicted 145 terrorist suspects, whereas the military commissions, thus far, have only convicted two. Overall, this straightforward policy—R2T2 —can help restore our reputation as a country that is built on and embraces the rule of law.

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Fact Sheet: Iraqi Refugee Processing
Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security
From press release:

The U.S. Departments of State (DOS) and Homeland Security (DHS) are pleased to announce that we have successfully achieved our goal of admitting more than 12,000 Iraqi refugees to the United States through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program during fiscal year (FY) 2008.

Throughout the course of FY 2008 we have developed an increasingly robust processing capacity for Iraqi refugees in multiple locations across the Middle East. This now includes an emerging in-country processing program in Baghdad.

Both DOS and DHS are committed to continuing efforts to resettle vulnerable Iraqis and, barring unforeseen adverse developments in the region, expect to significantly increase the number of Iraqi refugees admitted to the U.S. for permanent resettlement in FY 2009.

See also: U.S. Surpasses Goal of Admitting 12,000 Iraqi Refugees in Fiscal Year 2008; Assistance Reaches New Heights (U.S. Department of State)

See also: Briefing on Developments in the Iraqi Refugee Admissions and Assistance Programs (U.S. Department of State)

The Looming Crisis: Displacement and Security in Iraq
Source: The Brookings Institution

Lost in discussions of the military surge, the pace of troop drawdowns, and political benchmarks are millions of displaced Iraqi women, children, and men. Their plight is both a humanitarian tragedy and a strategic crisis that is not being addressed. The massive Iraqi displacement is like the proverbial elephant in the room: U.S. administration officials may acknowledge it as an important issue but lack a serious long-term plan to address the crisis. There is a risk that ignoring this humanitarian dimension will be yet another in a series of strategic blunders by the U.S. government with far-reaching political consequences. After all, the displacement of less than a million Palestinians from Israel in 1948 was initially seen as a temporary humanitarian problem, requiring temporary humanitarian solutions. Today it is hard to imagine the Middle East without the Palestinian diaspora. Present and future Iraqi displacement has the potential to change the Middle East landscape in unpredictably adverse ways. But if thoughtful policymakers—in the U.S. government, the U.N. system, and the non-governmental world—do not think strategically about Iraqi displacement, the implications for security in the region could be equally far-reaching.

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Council Report Urges U.S. to Improve Use of Assurances Against Torture for Detainee Transfers
Source: Council on Foreign Relations

U.S. efforts to return detainees to their home countries face a significant hurdle when the detainees are likely to be tortured on return. In those cases, the United States may obtain assurances that the receiving countries will not torture the individuals being returned. However, human rights groups, courts, and some in Congress question the reliability of these “assurances against torture.” A new Council Special Report, Avoiding Transfers to Torture, argues that the United States should “address the criticisms about and practical problems with the use of assurances” to avoid undercutting “U.S. efforts to improve its reputation in the struggle against terrorism.”

Report author Ashley S. Deeks, international affairs fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, concludes that alternatives to the use of assurances against torture (such as indefinite detention or criminal prosecution) are often unavailable or unappealing. Assurances therefore will remain an important tool for this and future administrations as the United States tries to close the Guantanamo detention facility, deport people who pose national security threats, and reduce its detainee populations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Countries such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Canada are wrestling with the same transfer-related issues as the United States and rely on assurances against torture as well. The report argues that this presents an opportunity to work together because each of these states starts “from a basic agreement that diplomatic assurances currently are the best way to address the dilemma posed by dangerous people in their custody who likely will face torture if transferred to their home countries.”

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Extraordinary Rendition: The Price of Secrecy (PDF: 318 KB)
Source: American University Law Review

Sweeping interpretations of presidential power and government secrecy after 9/11 bore fruit in the area of “extraordinary rendition.” Under this doctrine, the President claims to possess inherent authority to seize individuals and transfer them to other countries for interrogation and torture. In the past, Attorneys General and other legal commentators understood that: (1) Presidents needed congressional authority for these transfers and (2) the purpose was to bring the person to trial. Until recently, the Justice Department held that the President could not order someone extradited or rendered without authority granted by a treaty or statute. That view of the law changed radically after 9/11. The Bush Administration sent persons to other countries not to try them in open court but to interrogate and abuse them in secret. In lawsuits challenging this practice, the Bush Administration regularly invoked the state secrets privilege.

Part I of this Article identifies the legal principles that guide extradition, rendition, and kidnappings. Not until recent years did the Executive Branch ever claim independent authority to transfer suspects to another country without the support of a treaty or a statute, and in the infrequent cases where administrations did assert such authority it was for the purpose of bringing an individual to trial with associated judicial safeguards. Part II concentrates on extraordinary rendition, prohibitions on torture, precedents under the Clinton Administration, and changes after 9/11. Part III analyzes the legal arguments presented by the Bush Administration to justify extraordinary rendition, European investigations, and explanations offered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Part IV covers litigation on extraordinary rendition, including the trials of Maher Arar and Khaled El-Masri. Part V concludes by examining the standards that distinguish the Central Intelligence Agency’s (“CIA”) interrogations from those conducted pursuant to the Army Field Manual.

Hat tip: Secrecy News

Saudi Arabia: Domestic Workers Face Harsh Abuses
Source: Human Rights Watch

Saudi Arabia should implement labor, immigration, and criminal justice reforms to protect domestic workers from serious human rights abuses that in some cases amount to slavery, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Employers often face no punishment for committing abuses including months or years of unpaid wages, forced confinement, and physical and sexual violence, while some domestic workers face imprisonment or lashings for spurious charges of theft, adultery, or “witchcraft.”

The 133-page report, “‘As If I Am Not Human’: Abuses against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia,” concludes two years of research and is based on 142 interviews with domestic workers, senior government officials, and labor recruiters in Saudi Arabia and labor-sending countries.

“In the best cases, migrant women in Saudi Arabia enjoy good working conditions and kind employers, and in the worst they’re treated like virtual slaves. Most fall somewhere in between,” said Nisha Varia, senior researcher in the Women’s Rights Division of Human Rights Watch. “The Saudi government should extend labor law protections to domestic workers and reform the visa sponsorship system so that women desperate to earn money for their families don’t have to gamble with their lives.”

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ICC: Good Progress Amid Missteps in First Five Years
Source: Human Rights Watch

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has made notable progress in bringing justice for the worst crimes despite mistakes in policy and practice, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today that assesses the court’s first five years. Human Rights Watch urged greater international support of the ICC to meet the political and financial challenges ahead.

The 244-page report, “Courting History: The Landmark International Criminal Court’s First Years,” examines the ICC’s accomplishments and shortcomings since it began operations in 2003. The court was created to bring justice to the victims of gross human rights violations; so far the court has issued arrest warrants against suspects in four countries, though none have yet been tried.

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Trafficking in Persons Report 2008
Source: U.S. Department of State

“We are pleased that in the seven years since the creation of the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the United States and our friends and allies have made important strides in confronting the reality that human beings continue to be bought and sold in the twenty-first century. It has been gratifying to witness the determined governments, human rights and women’s groups, faith-based organizations, and many brave individuals who are dedicated to advancing human dignity worldwide. Trafficking and exploitation plague all nations, and no country, even ours, is immune.”

Download in sections (PDFs) or as full report (PDF; 47.6 MB).

Reinventing Humanitarian Intervention: Two Cheers for the Responsibility to Protect? (PDF; 301 KB)
Source: UK Parliament Research Papers

In 2005, world leaders endorsed a new doctrine called the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ which is designed to provide a moral and legal framework for the international community to respond to mass atrocities. This means that if a state defaults on its responsibility to protect its citizens the international community would assume this responsibility collectively.

The notion that the international community has a ‘Responsibility to Protect’ entails three distinct yet related commitments: a responsibility to prevent, to react and to re-build. By far the most controversial element of the responsibility to protect doctrine is the idea that military force should, on occasion, be used to protect civilians. This amounts to a new take on a very old and divisive issue - humanitarian intervention.

This paper outlines the changing parameters of state sovereignty since 1945 before tracing the development of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine from its genesis in the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty to its international endorsement in 2005. It then examines the parameters of the concept, its political and legal status and highlights the key challenges, both normative and practical, in its implementation.

Boumediene v. Bush: Guantanamo Detainees’ Right to Habeas Corpus (PDF; 112 KB)
Source: Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists)

In the consolidated cases of Boumediene v. Bush and Al Odah v. United States, decided June 12, 2008, the Supreme Court held in a 5-4 opinion that aliens designated as enemy combatants and detained at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus. The Court also found that § 7 of the Military Commissions Act (MCA), which limited judicial review of executive determinations of the petitioners’ enemy combatant status, did not provide an adequate habeas substitute and therefore acted as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ of habeas. The immediate impact of the Boumediene decision is that detainees at Guantanamo may petition a federal district court for habeas review of the circumstances of their detention. This report summarizes the Boumediene decision and analyzes several of its major implications for the U.S. detention of alien enemy combatants and legislation that limits detainees’ access to judicial review. For discussion of litigation challenging detention policy, see CRS Report RL33180, Enemy Combatant Detainees: Habeas Corpus Challenges in Federal Court, by Jennifer K. Elsea and Kenneth R. Thomas.

Human Rights, Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism (PDF; 1.9 MB)
Source: UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

This Fact Sheet has been prepared with the aim of strengthening understanding of the complex and multifaceted relationship between human rights and terrorism. It identifies some of the critical human rights issues raised in the context of terrorism and highlights the relevant human rights principles and standards which must be respected at all times and in particular in the context of counter-terrorism.

It is addressed to State authorities, national and international non- governmental organizations (NGOs), national human rights institutions, legal practitioners and individuals concerned with ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights in the context of terrorism and counter- terrorism.
Specifically, the Fact Sheet is intended to:

Raise awareness of the impact of terrorism and counter-terrorism on the enjoyment of all human rights;
• Provide a practical tool for practitioners dealing with terrorism, counter-terrorism measures and human rights;
• Provide guidance on ensuring compliance with human rights when countering terrorism;
• Illustrate specific human rights challenges in countering terrorism.

Hat tip: UN Pulse

Arresting Children: Examining Recent Trends in Preteen Crime
Source: Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago

Are juvenile offenders getting younger? The American public often hears policymakers and justice practitioners assert that young people are committing crimes at younger and younger ages. Is this true? This analysis explores this question by examining data collected by law enforcement agencies across the country. It tracks juvenile crime patterns from 1980 through 2006 and finds that the age profile of juvenile offenders has not changed substantially in 25 years. Crime rates among children under age 13 have generally followed the same crime patterns exhibited among older youth. In a few offense categories, however, increases in preteen crime have outpaced increases among older juveniles, particularly sexual offenses, assaults, and weapons possession (not necessarily firearms). The fact that school authorities and family members often report these offenses suggests a possible hypothesis to explain increases in some preteen crimes: The juvenile justice system today may be dealing with child behavior problems that were once the responsibility of social welfare agencies, schools, and families.

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Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact
Source: Physicians for Human Rights

In PHR’s new report, Broken Laws, Broken Lives, we have for the first time medical evidence to confirm first-hand accounts of men who endured torture by US personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay. These men were never charged with any crime.

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