Antiterror laws eroding rights, warns UN envoy
Wednesday, November 6, 2002 – Page A10
UNITED NATIONS -- A UN special envoy expressed concern yesterday that a growing number of countries around the world are adopting strategies that threaten basic human rights in the name of fighting terrorism.
"The list is growing every day," said Hina Jilani, the special representative for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on human-rights defenders. "Threats to security must be eliminated through the rule of law rather than outside it," she told reporters after briefing the General Assembly.
The United States, Britain, Australia, Indonesia, Colombia and Guatemala were among the countries that concerned her because of laws and actions taken since Sept. 11, 2001, she said.
She also singled out Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf gained power in a 1999 bloodless coup and moved to shore up his own considerable powers even as his country held a parliamentary election last month.
"Pakistan is in a very difficult situation right now," she said.
She said strategies vary from country to country: Some threaten human-rights champions and their families; others undermine independence movements, asylum-seekers, political activists or opposition parties and movements.
In some countries, which she did not name, "it has been very easy for governments to target the opposition by labelling them as terrorists," she said.
She acknowledged that governments need to protect their citizens from terror attacks, but said: "I very firmly believe that the imperatives of security will not be served by violating human rights, and by undermining and derogating the standards that we have already adopted."
Reuters
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