Anti-Terrorism and Human Rights

Anti-Terrorism and Human Rights

Anti-Terrorism and Human Rights

Introduction

Every corner of the world has borne the human cost of terrorism. As a consequence of brutal terrorist attacks, U.N family itself has beard heavy human loss. For instance, on August 19, 2003, the U.N office in Baghdad resulted in the loss of Sergio Vieira de Mello who was acting as the Special Spokesperson of U.N Secretary General. In addition, the terrorist attack resulted in the casualty of 21 others including men and women, and more than 150 injuries. There is a clear impact of terrorism on the human rights with distressing effects pm the freedom and physical integrity of sufferers. Terrorism may also result in the destabilization of the Governments, damage civilians, security threat, and damage the social and economic growth. It is therefore the obligation of the States to guarantee human rights of their citizens and others by taking constructive initiatives to safeguard them from the acts of terrorism (Lynch, 2007.pp 67).

September 11, 2001 resulted in a drastic change in the world. Anti-terrorism laws were passed by the countries like U.S.A, U.K, and Canada that described the term “terrorism” and response to such attacks. Preventive measures were also defined by these countries against the terrorism. Although these laws were passed to protect the civilians but they were also subjected to disobey the certain human rights. The increased powers granted to the officials to investigate the terrorist acts lead to human rights violations. United States passed the legislations to fight against the terrorist acts nationally and globally to punish and deter the terrorists. The USA Patriotic Act 2001 was passed and the amendments were incorporated in the federal criminal code. Following U.S.A, the U.K government has also passed the Anti-terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001 which was stricter to prevent terrorist activities. The part ten of this act states the enhanced police powers to identify, arrest, and investigate the suspects. The amendments in the anti-terrorism laws by U.S.A and U.K have encouraged other countries to pass anti-terrorism acts. Following both these countries the Canadian officials have taken more firm initiatives when they introduced and passed the Anti-Terrorism Act. The act described the terrorist activity as an action that is taken within or outside the Canada, that make threats to the national security or general public or is a crime under one of the ten United Nations anti-terrorism conferences. It is also an offence under the law to get involved in the terrorist act in any way and unlawful to deliberately cover a terrorist. It has now become much easier for the police officials to freeze the assets of the terrorists and to employ electronic means to monitor them. However the use of electronic means is no longer seen as a last resort after the amendments in the police powers (Lynch, 2007.pp 67).

Discussion

It has seriously been observed in the recent years that the initiative taken by the States against the terrorism have caused severe disputes to the human ...