24 August 2011 — Home page: http://www.statewatch.org/ e-mail: office@statewatch.org

1. Italy/north Africa: Concern over the violation of rights of migrants who were refused entry, expelled, held in detention centres
2. France: “The law of France must be respected” :
3. EU: European Commission: Report for 2010 on Regulation on public access to documents
4. CoE: HR Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg: Excessive use of pre-trial detention runs against human rights
5. UK: Long Lartin unit for terror suspects criticised
6. Spain: Neighbourhood groups’ report on racist identity checks in Madrid
7. UK: Deaths in detention centres
8. Statewatch Observatory: UK: Surveillance statistics: 1937 – 2010
9. EU: Council of the European Union: European Police Chiefs Convention
10. EU: Council of the European Union: Single permit Directive, Discrimination Directive, Asylum reception conditions, TFTP
11. EU: Council of the European Union: Directive on the right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings
12. UK: Report by the Children’s Commissioner: Landing in Kent: The experiences of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK

UK riots: Summer 2011

13.  UK: The violence of the violated, IRR News Service, by A Sivanandan
14.  UK: Riots MI5 joins social messaging trawl for riot organisers
15.  UK: England riots: Government mulls social media controls
16.  UK: Mark Duggan did not shoot at police, says Independent Police Complaints Commission
17.  UK: 1981 “Uprisings”: April 1981: Brixton and the July 1981 riots
18.  UK: RIOTS: On the fourth night of disturbances
19.  UK: RIOTS: London riots: Parliament to be recalled
20.  UK: Nick Clegg “warns” of riots if Tories are elected (11Apr10)
21.  UK: LONDON: Saturday, 6 August: Tottenham riots
22.  UK: Sunday 7 August: London riots: Looting and violence continues

1.  Italy/north Africa: Concern over the violation of rights of migrants who were refused entry, expelled, held in detention centres, asylum seekers and foreign workers
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/04italy-north-africa.htm

A document produced by ASGI (Associazione di Studi Giuridici sull’Immigrazione) raises several concerns over the treatment of migrants who arrived in Italy as a result of political turmoil in the north African countries of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia since December 2010.

2.  France: “The law of France must be respected” : In the past few weeks, the prefecture of Gironde has proved very keen on chasing irregular migrants, sometimes with no respect for the legal procedures and judicial decisions made. This has been criticised by the magistrates’ trade union:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/03france-imm-law.htm

3. EU: European Commission: Report from the Commission on the application in 2010 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents. The Commission’s annual report on public access to its document again makes very pitiful reading:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/eu-com-access-report-2010-com-492.pdf

a) 26.42% of requests for documents are refused under Article 4.3 of the Regulation – to protect the “space to think”, to keep secret documents under discussion;
b) the number of applications for documents has risen from 5,055 (2009) to 6,127 which is no at all surprising as the Commission’s public register of documents is useless.
c) There are just 5,109 user sessions per month on the Commission’s public register of documents – by way of comparison the Statewatch European Monitoring and Documentation Centre (SEMDOC) has 12,600 user sessions a month. This is primarily because the Commission’s public register contains less than 10% of the documents it produces or receives and may of these do not give access to the document itself.

It will be recalled that Statewatch lodged a successful complaints with the European Ombudsman on the Commission’s failure to maintain a complete register of documents under Article 11 of the Regulation on public access to documents: See: Statewatch wins European Ombudsman complaint against the European Commission over its public register of documents – but it refuses to comply:
http://www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-82-eu-commission-register.pdf

4.  Council of Europe: Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg: Excessive use of pre-trial detention runs against human rights:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/coe-hrc-pre-trial-detention.pdf

See also: Recommendation Rec(2006)13 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on the use of remand in custody, the conditions in which it takes place and the provision of safeguards against abuse: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/coe-recommendation-remand-in-custody.pdf

and European Commission: A Green Paper on the application of EU criminal justice legislation in the field of detention:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/eu-com-detention-green-paper-com-327-11.pdf

5. UK: Long Lartin unit for terror suspects criticised (BBC News, link): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14567546?print=true

See: Report on an unannounced follow-up inspection of the detainee unit at HMP Long Lartin 4 – 6 April 20 11 by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/uk-long-lartin-detainee-unit.pdf

6. Spain: Neighbourhood groups’ report on racist identity checks in Madrid:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/spain-infromer-brigadas-2011.pdf

7. UK: Deaths in detention centres (Free Movement, link):

Press release: http://freemovement.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/deaths-in-detention-centres/
Court judgment: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/uk-s-v-sshd-judgment.pdf
 
8. Statewatch Observatory: UK: Surveillance statistics: 1937 – 2010: by Tony Bunyan
http://www.statewatch.org/uk-tel-tap-reports.htm

“The Interception of Communications Commissioner’s report for 2010 shows that in England, Wales and Scotland the number of warrants issued plus the number of “modifications” (where previously a new warrant would have to have been issued) rose from 7,602 to 8,274.

During the Second World War the highest yearly total for warrants (for phone tapping and mail-opening) issued was 1,682. This figure, despite the Cold War and the activities of the Provisional IRA, was not surpassed until 1998 (1,763). Since 1997 the number of annual surveillance warrants (and modifications) issued has risen from 1,712 to 8,274 (2010).”

Background:

– Interception of Communications Commissioner report for 2010:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/jul/uk-interception-of-communications-commissioner-report-2010.pdf
 
– UK Chief Surveillance Commissioner reports: 2004-2010
http://www.statewatch.org/uk-surveillance-commissioner-reports.htm

– Intelligence Services Commissioner report for 2010
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/jul/uk-intelligence-services-commissioner-report-2010.pdf

See also: Understanding UK surveillance statistics:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2010/aug/05uk-understanding-surveillance-statistics.htm

9. EU: Council of the European Union: European Police Chiefs Convention:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/eu-council-euro-police-chiefs-convention-conclusions-13366-11.pdf

“The mass of data available for investigation, especially pertaining to cyber-crime and  economic crime, is a clear challenge to established law enforcement capability. It is already no longer possible or efficient to seek to identify and prosecute all suspects for these crimes.” (emphasis in original)

“Growing immigration flows will impact on terrorism and extremism: The insular nature of some immigration and the lack of integration into societies could lead to and increase in right-wing extremism in the EU.” (emphasis in original)

“De-radicalisation and prevent of radicalisation: As radicalisation has been rather extensively studied in the pat years, the key action needed is the de-radicalisation of radicalised individuals in society” (emphasis in original)

10.  EU: Council of the European Union: Single permit Directive, Discrimination Directive, Asylum reception conditions, TFTP:

– Early 2nd reading deal: Proposal for a Directive on a single application procedure for a single permit for third-country nationals to reside and work in the territory of a Member State and on a common set of rights for third-country workers legally residing in a Member State – Political agreement:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/eu-council-2nd-reading-deal-single-permit12880-11.pdf

– Proposal for a Council Directive on implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective of religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation – Consolidated text:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/eu-council-consolidated-text-discrimination-12446-11.pdf

– Amended proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down standards for the reception of asylum seekers (Recast) (including Member State objections):
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/eu-council-objections-by-ms-to-reception-conditions-asylum-12580-11.pdf

– EU: Terrorist Finance Tracking System: Questions in relation to the Commission Communication on TFTP:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/eu-council-cats-tftp-13204-11.pdf

11. EU: Council of the European Union: Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the right of access to a lawyer in criminal proceedings and on the right to communicate upon arrest – Orientation debate:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/eu-council-right-to-infotmation-2897-11.pdf

12.  UK: Report by the Children’s Commissioner: Landing in Kent: The experiences of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK:
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/uk-landing-in-kent-the-experience-of-unaccompanied-children-arriving-in-the-UK.pdf

13. UK: The violence of the violated (IRR News Service, link) by A Sivanandan: “there’s so much anger right across society – not just in these kids. This is not the end of rebellion, it is the beginning.”: http://www.irr.org.uk/2011/august/ha000011.html

14. UK riots MI5 joins social messaging trawl for riot organisers – Intelligence agency asked to crack encrypted messages – especially on BlackBerry Messenger – to help police (Guardian, link): http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/15/mi5-social-messaging-riot-organisers-police/print

and UK riots: Thousands more officers will be trained in tackling riots, says Theresa May (Daily Telegraph, link):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8703499/UK-riots-Thousands-more-officers-will-be-trained-in-tackling-riots-says-Theresa-May.html

15. UK: England riots: Government mulls social media controls (BBC News, link):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14493497

16. UK: Mark Duggan did not shoot at police, says Independent Police Complaints Commission (Guardian, link)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/mark-duggan-police-ipcc

Duggan, whose shooting by police sparked London’s riots, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest. Two bullets were fired by a firearms officer, not three as was originally reported by police. A loaded gun is reported to have been found in Duggan’s sock but there is no evidence that the weapon was fired. See also: Met should disclose facts behind Mark Duggan’s death (Guardian, link):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/09/met-communications-department-mark-duggan

17. UK: 1981 “Uprisings”: Many current accounts tend to collapse the events of 1981. There were two phases, the first was in Brixton over the weekend of 11-12 April 1981 following “Swamp 81”, a mass police stop and search operation . The second more widespread outbreaks were between 3-12 July 1981 including 12 areas in London plus Toxteth (Liverpool), Manchester, Preston, Hull, Wolverhampton,Reading, Birmingham, Luton, Chester, Leicester, Leeds and Huddersfield. Two articles by Tony Bunyan in State Research Bulletin describe what happened:

April 1981: Brixton: New facts emerge: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/uk-april-uprisings-1981-state-research.pdf
The July 1981 riots: http://www.statewatch.org/news/2011/aug/uk-july-uprisings-1981-state-research.pdf

Already the scale of the 2011 riots exceed that of 1981 and the burning and looting of homes, shops and stores was not a major feature back then when the targets were largely the police.

18. UK: RIOTS: On the fourth night of disturbances, 9 August, they extended to Wolverhampton, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Salford, Manchester and Nottingham, Birkenhead and Toxteth (Liverpool) again. See: UK riots: Trouble erupts in English cities (BBC News, link).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14460554

In London there was a virtual “lockdown” with 16,000 police on the streets compared with 6,000 the night before and many shops, businesses and council offices shutting by mid-afternoon.

19. UK: RIOTS: London riots: Parliament to be recalled (BBC News, link):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14454516

Third night of disturbances, 8 August: In London: Hackney, Colliers Wood, Catford, Ealing, Woolwich, Clpaham, East Dulwich, Lewisham, Leeds (Chapeltown), Camden, Peckham, Ilford, Woodford Green, Chalk Farm , Canning Town, Brixton and outside London in: Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester, Bristol and Toxteth (Liverpool): London riots: conflagration and carnage in the capital and beyond (Guardian, link):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/london-riots-roundup-birmingham-liverpool/print

See also: Hackney rioters directly target police (Guardian, link):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/hackney-riots-police-east-london/print

Truly extraordinary speech by fearless West Indian woman in face – Hackney (Video, Twitvid, link):
http://www.twitvid.com/4JTZH

And another incident: “We’ve detoured to Dalston where a bus was set on fire in shacklewell lane earlier. The single deck bus is now cordoned off and there doesn’t seem to be much damage, but the incident has clearly shaken the large Turkish community here. Many shopkeepers are on the street talking about how they chased away the gang of youths behind the bus fire.” (from: Axis of Logic): http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_63521.shtml

see also Dalston People (link): http://www.dalstonpeople.co.uk/Hackney-Cleans-London-Riots-Yesterday/story-13096810-detail/story.html
and Hackney Citizen (link): http://hackneycitizen.co.uk/2011/08/09/turkish-shopkeepers-stand-firm-rioters-dalston-hackney/comment-page-1/

20. UK: Nick Clegg “warns” of riots if Tories are elected (11Apr10) (Youtube, link)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YItK1izQIwo&feature=share

Nick Clegg, Leader of the Liberal Democrats is now Deputy Prime Minister in the Coalition government

21. UK-LONDON: Saturday, 6 August: Tottenham riots: a peaceful protest, then suddenly all hell broke loose – Shops looted, vehicle torched and police injured in full-scale riot that spread across north-London suburbs (Guardian, link):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest/print

and We warned Tottenham situation could get out of control – community leaders – Police branded ‘absolutely culpable’ after more than 100 people left waiting to see senior officer at station (Guardian, link):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-community-leaders/print

Saturday 6 August: Tottenham riots: relatives of dead man say they didn’t want violence – Police have been criticised for failing to communicate clearly with the family who say they feel isolated, unsupported and ignored (Guardian, link): “On Thursday evening, as [Mark] Duggan was on his way home in a minicab, his death at the hands of armed police from the specialist firearms unit C019 lit the touchpaper for riots which many people had hoped never to witness again.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-relatives-dead-man/print

22. Sunday 7 August: London riots: Looting and violence continues (BBC News, link)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14439970?print=true

and Was Tottenham’s riot a cry of rage? (BBC News, link):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14438924?print=true

Comment: Tottenham riots: This could happen in a dozen boroughsI don’t know what could have been done to avoid last night’s explosion of resentment and criminality. But I’m grimly confident of its potential elsewhere (Guardian, link):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-could-happen-elsewhere/print

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