Assessment 2, 2012 - Report

Abstract

This piece of study aims to talk about the United Kingdom's new coalition government's Review of Counter-Terrorism & Security Powers. The motive here is to highlight the summary of the consultation submissions that are received from Liberty, Amnesty International UK. Further, the report by Lord MacDonald of River Glaven QC, and the review of security powers and counter terrorism as given by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, is also included in the discussion of this study. Moreover, the findings show that the government of the United Kingdom has taken numerous steps and introduced numerous legislations for the purpose of countering terrorism, however, these legislations have also negatively affected the country's human rights laws and regulations and the concerns regarding the national security for the people of the UK. Thus, the main aim of this study is to provide some recommendations for the UK's government in order to cope up with the rising issue of affecting country's human rights protection.

Introduction

Countering terrorism has been becoming one of the increasing concerns for the government of the United Kingdom. The past ten years in the history of the United Kingdom have given rise to a number of legislations regarding the anti-terrorism movements in order to provide their people protection in the context of human rights and national security. There are a number of organizations on governmental as well as non-governmental level who are taking initiatives for the purpose of controlling terrorism in the country. Amnesty International is also one of those organizations.

In addition to this, the concern does not only about countering terrorism, because the past decade has shown the outburst of five major legislations that have affected the entire UK, and the goal of organizations such as Amnesty International is to make people aware about the provisions under these legislations that are incompatible with the country's obligations of the human rights laws. However, all the reviews that are included in the discussion of this study are aimed to provide an opportunity for the government of the UK to repair the damages that have occurred in the protection of human rights in the name of countering terrorism in the United Kingdom.

Discussion

With an increase in the concerns of human rights protections in the United Kingdom, the Home Secretary has announced a rapid review of the key counter-terrorism powers by the Home Office, on 13th July 2010. Moreover, the aims behind these reviews is to ensure that the measures and powers covered under the review are effective, necessary, and proportionate in meeting the United Kingdom's domestic and international human resource obligations, and to consider the major powers in this context including the control orders, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act of the year 2000, the extending use of deportations with assurance, and the measures to deal with organizations that are promoting violence or hatred in the country (Robinson, 2011, pp. 3-11).

Diplomatic assurances and national security deportations

The organizations such as Amnesty International has challenged that the bilateral, unenforceable, diplomatic assurances of one government ...