The New Dark Age

14 February, 2011

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1.     EU-COE: Discussions on EU joining the ECHR: Working Document from the European Commission
2.     Switzerland: Rights Groups Issue ‘Indictment’ of Bush
3.     UK: Cameron’s Munich speech marks securitisation of race policy (IRR News Service)
4.     Statewatch Analysis: Time to rethink terrorist blacklisting
5.     Statewatch Analysis: EU: Deepening the democratic deficit: the failure to “enshrine” the public’s right of access to documents
6.     EU: Council of the European Union: Charter of Fundamnetal Rights
7.     EU: UK House of Lords Select Committee: Implementing the Stockholm Programme: Home Affairs
8.    GREECE: Migrants’ Strike Tests Greek Govt
9     UK: COUNTER-TERRORISM: Lord Carlile: Sixth report
10.  EU-PNR: European Commission: Proposal for a Directive on the use of Passenger Name Record
11.  Netherlands: Meijers Committee: On immigration and asylum in the VVD-CDA Coalition Agreement of 30 September 2010
12.  EU: DATA PROTECTION: Council of the European Union: Council conclusions on comprehensive approach

1.  EU-COE: Discussions on EU joining the ECHR: Working Document from the European Commission:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-accession-echr-com-ds-1930-10.pdf

Council of Europe: 5th Working Meeting of the CDDH Informal Working Group on the accession of the EU to the European Convention of Human Rights (CDDH-UE) with the European Commission: www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-accession-echr-coe-jan.pdf

2.  Switzerland: Centre for Constitutional Rights and ECCHR: Rights Groups Issue ‘Indictment’ of Bush (New York Times, link):
www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/world/europe/08briefs-Switzerland.html

and see: Preliminary “indictment for torture”: George  W. Bush brought pursuant to the Convention against Torture (42 pages):
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/switzerland-bush-indictment.pdf

“Two rights groups issued what they called a preliminary indictment against former President George W. Bush on torture charges in Geneva on Monday, vowing that he would face a case against him wherever he travelled outside the United States.”

3.  UK: Cameron’s Munich speech marks securitisation of race policy (IRR News Service, link): “Cameron’s speech signals a fundamental departure in British race relations… Cameron in attacking ‘the doctrine of state multiculturalism’ was sending a signal that government policy in future will not be built on pluralism or integration but monoculturalism, assimilation, exclusion (and surveillance) of those Muslim organisations which refuse to play ball.”
www.irr.org.uk/2011/february/ha000009.html

4.  Statewatch Analysis: Time to rethink terrorist blacklisting by Ben Hayes:
www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-120-terrorist-blacklisting.pdf

The terrorist proscription regimes enacted by the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU) after the attacks of 9/11 have been seriously undermined by growing doubts about their legality, effectiveness and disproportionate impact on the rights of affected parties.

5.  Statewatch Analysis: EU: Deepening the democratic deficit: the failure to “enshrine” the public’s right of access to documents by Tony Bunyan:
www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-121-eu-access-to-documents.pdf

In April 2008 the Commission opened up the process to amend the 2001 Regulation on access to EU documents – nearly three years on nothing has happened – all that has been agreed is a new set of “comitology” rules that will restrict access.

6.  EU: Council of the European Union:

– Draft Council conclusions on the role of the Council of the European Union in ensuring the effective implementation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-council-draft-concl-implementing-charter-6387-11.pdf

See also: Commission Communication on the Charter:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-com-charter-573-10.pdf

Charter of Fundamental Rights – Full-text:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-charter-of-fundamental-rights.pdf

– Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for the purposes of seasonal employment (EU do no: 5051-10):  www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-council-tcn-seasonal-workers-5051-11.pdf

– Updated Catalogue of Recommendations for the correct application of the Schengen Acquis and Best practices: Police cooperation:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-council-schengen-catalogue-police-coop-15785-rev2-10.pdf

– Presidency Conclusions from the Conference “Towards a multidisciplinary approach to prevention of trafficking in human beings, prosecution of traffickers and protection of victims” [Brussels, 18 – 19 October 2010] :
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-council-conclusions-conf-trafficking.pdf

7. EU: UK House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union: Implementing the Stockholm Programme: Home Affairs:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-uk-hol-rep-stockholm-prog.pdf

8.  GREECE: Migrants’ Strike Tests Greek Govt (Inter Press Service, link) “A hunger strike by migrants is emerging as a test case for how far migrants can go to fight for rights, and how far the government can go to clamp down on them.”:
ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54353

9  UK: COUNTER-TERRORISM: Lord Carlile: Sixth report of the Independent Reviewer pursuant to Section 14(3) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (2005) (99 pages):
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/uk-counter-terrorism-lord-carlile-sixth-report.pdf

See: Terror watchdog says UK is ‘safe haven’ for suspects (BBC News, link)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12356563

10.  EU-PNR: European Commission: Proposal for a Directive on the use of Passenger Name Record data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-com-eu-pnr-com-32-11.pdf

Impact Assessment (SEC 132):
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-com-eu-pnr-ia-sec-132-11.pdf

Staff Working Paper (SEC 133):
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-com-eu-pnr-staff-working-paper-sec-133-11.pdf

All passengers flying in and out of the EU will have to provide their “Passenger Name Record” (PNR) data, eg: home address, mobile phone number, credit card information and email address – which will be checked against national watch-lists for suspected links with terrorism or serious crime (although the above documents sometimes refer to crime in general).

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:

“The current proposal comes down in favour of collecting personal data (PNR) for travel by air in and out of the EU. But there is the distinct possibility that this could be extended to travel by sea and land and to travel between EU countries and within countries – everyones’ movements everywhere would be monitored by the state. And this could be extended, as is planned in the EU for air travel [ESTA], to needing to get permission to travel. A truly nightmare scenario.”

Background: This is not the first time an EU-PNR scheme has been proposed, the Commission put forward a proposal for a Framework Decision in 2007: Commission proposal in November 2008 the European Parliament refused to vote on the proposal:
www.statewatch.org/semdoc/assets/files/commission/COM-2007-654.pdf

See Statewatch’s Observatory on EU surveillance of passengers (PNR)@
www.statewatch.org/eu-pnrobservatory.htm

11. Netherlands: Meijers Committee: Standing committee of experts on international immigration, refugee the Netherlands and criminal law: Memorandum on immigration and asylum in the VVD-CDA Coalition Agreement of 30 September 2010: The Meijers Committee concludes in this note that many of these proposals are (probably) contrary to international and European legislation in this field:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/netherlands-meijers-committee-coalition-agreement.pdf

12. EU: DATA PROTECTION: Council of the European Union: Council conclusions on the Communication from the Commission – A comprehensive approach on personal data protection in the European Union:
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/feb/eu-council-draft-conclusion-dp-17923-rev1-11.pdf

See also: European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS): Data Protection Reform Strategy: EDPS sets out his vision for the new framework (Press release):
www.statewatch.org/news/2011/jan/eu-edps-press-release-comprehensive-data-protection-jan-11.pdf

EDPS Opinion: www.statewatch.org/news/2011/jan/eu-edps-opinion-comprehensive-data-protection-jan-11.pdf

and  European Commission: Communication: A comprehensive approach on personal data protection in the European Union A comprehensive approach on personal data protection in the European Union (COM 609/3-10):
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/nov/eu-com-dp-com-609-3-10.pdf
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