• Home
• /
• Opinion

Reign of terror

A damning report released by Amnesty International shows how the so-called anti-terror legislations adopted by countries like the US and the UK are polarising societies and “globalising” human rights violations. The “divisive policies” followed by such countries only serve to sow the seeds of fear and suspicion among people and lead to more violence.

But in the face of overwhelming evidence gathered by humanitarian organisations on human rights violations and public criticism, governments, including liberal democracies of the West, continue to unleash intrusive legislations that fail to protect civilians.

Take Britain, which is slowly inching towards becoming a police state in every possible way. Apparently, as part of a slew of new anti-terror laws that are on the anvil, the British police would soon be given powers to stop and quiz anyone in the country if there are “reasonable grounds for suspicion”. In other words, the police might be given greater freedom to spy on and intern citizens with impunity.

The UK home secretary, John Reid, who is supposed to step down next month, has even gone to the extent of saying that some provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights could be suspended so that harsher measures could be imposed on terror suspects. As Reid’s counterparts in Northern Ireland have rightly pointed out, such measures could actually end up being “the domestic equivalent of Guantanamo Bay”.

Therefore, civilians, especially ethnic minorities, can now brace themselves for more discriminatory practices and harassment at the hands of authorities. There’s no denying that governments need to push through legislations that give more teeth to state agencies to check terrorist activities. But they should remember that the flip side of such laws is that they trample on civil liberties of the common man.

It’s time they learn how to tread the fine line between fighting terror and clamping down on civil liberties.