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Security “Rode Roughshod” over Human Rights:Robinson
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“No
nation can isolate or exclude itself from the effects of global
problems of endemic poverty and conflict,” Robinson said. |
LONDON,
June 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Concerns over security in
the aftermath of the September 11 attacks “rode roughshod” over
the principles of human rights, U.N. rights chief Mary Robinson said
Thursday, June 6.
“In
the past, the world has learned that emphasis on national order and
security often involves curtailment of democracy and human rights. As
a result, a shadow has been cast," she said in a lecture,
entitled ‘Human Rights in the Shadow of September 11’ she
delivered at the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, west London.
“This
shadow can be seen in official reactions that at times have seemed to
subordinate the principles of human rights to ever more robust action
in the war against terrorism.
“There
has been a tendency to ride roughshod over, or at least to set on one
side, established principles of international human rights and
humanitarian law,” Robinson added.
The
former Irish President and current U.N. human rights chief said that
since the attacks on New York and Washington, there had been an
emphasis on surveillance and restrictions on rights to asylum, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) said.
“It
is essential that the actions taken by states to combat terrorism be
in conformity with international human rights standards,” urged
Robinson.
She
also expressed concern over a rise in anti-immigrant feeling
throughout Europe.
“As
controls are tightened, there is a coarsening of debate and of
language used in speaking of asylum seekers and immigrants in
Europe,” said Robinson, quoted by AFP.
“This,
together with the resurgence of anti-Semitism and the rise in
Islamaphobia, are challenges which must be faced by European leaders
and citizens alike,” she added.
The
thorny issue of immigration is set to top the agenda at the June 21-22
summit of European Union leaders in Seville, southern Spain, amid
concerns over the success of anti-immigrant parties in recent
parliamentary and presidential elections across Europe, AFP reported.
Leaders
are expected to discuss measures to tighten borders, clamp down
against people-traffickers and review aid to non-EU countries failing
to take enough action to stem the influx.
Robinson
said the best memorial for victims of September 11 was for world
leaders to commit to a broader vision of security through justice.
“We
now understand in a more profound way that no nation can isolate or
exclude itself from the effects of global problems of endemic poverty
and conflict.
“In
essence, the tragedy of September 11 must spur renewed action on all
these fronts,” she added.
Robinson
has earlier told BBC radio that new anti-terrorism measures announced
by the United States had “worrying aspects, ” adding she was
concerned about the “erosion of civil liberties and the clamping
down on legitimate political dissent.”
“It
is because, in part, of the stark and unacceptable divides in our
world that we are facing the kind of terrorist acts that were given
particular culmination in the attacks of September 11,” she said.
U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Wednesday, June 5, 2002, that
individual visitors deemed to “fall into categories of elevated
national security concern” will be required to submit to a
three-part immigration exercise, or risk arrest, AFP said.
Such
visitors will be fingerprinted and photographed at the border, be
required to register “periodically” if they stay in the United
States for 30 days or longer, and be subjected to exit controls.
U.S.
President George W. Bush's administration’s plan to tighten
vigilance over 100,000 foreign visitors targets Middle Eastern people,
to the chagrin of Arab-American groups and civil libertarians.
On
Tuesday, June 4, Ashcroft promised to put in place by autumn a system
to follow the trail of foreigners on U.S soil.
The
goal of the new regulations, beyond that of streamlining the
immigration system that has not been reformed in a quarter century, is
to keep track of some 100,000 visitors, who are for the most part
Arabs, AFP reported.
All
U.S. territory must be covered by these new measures by 2005, so as to
track the movements of 35 million foreigners who enter the US each
year.
The
system includes: photographing and fingerprinting the visitor at the
border, regularly checking on foreigners who have been in country at
least 30 days and increasing powers permitting the Immigration and
Naturalization Service to expel those whose visas have expired.
These
measures apply especially to citizens of countries the United States
describes as alleged sponsors of terror, notably Iran, Iraq, Sudan,
Libya and Syria.
Officials
told The New York Times that a score of Muslim and Mideast countries
are concerned, notably those U.S. allies in the war against terrorism,
such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
Ashcroft,
who called these measures a “vital line of defense” against
terrorists, explained that “no country is totally exempt, and no
country, except those countries that are listed on the state sponsors
of terrorism, has a universal imposition.”
His
announcement has been perceived as an attack on Arab communities.
“This
sweeping measure, proposed without consultation with Congress, will do
little to provide real protection against terrorism, but will instead
stigmatize innocent Muslims and Arabs who have committed no crime and
pose no danger to us,” said Democratic Massachusetts Senator Edward
Kennedy.
“We
feel that it is a new era of McCarthyism,” Fayez al-Rahman,
spokesman for the American Muslim Council, which represents Muslims in
the United States, told AFP, referring to former senator Joseph
McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunt.
“Ashcroft
is targeting people with no apparent reason. Either we do it for every
country, or just don't do it at all,” he added.
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