Excesos brit?°nicos: Seguridad y derechos humanos
The editorial page of El Pa??s carries a response to the recently announced crack down in Great Britain on immigrants who display “unacceptable behaviors.” The plan, announced by Tony Blair, is to immediately deport any non-citizen deemed to promote or support any act however remotely related to a very broad definition of terrorism. Such acts include postings to web sites considered to be anti-British, who “directly or indirectly threaten the public order,” and of course the very real threats from those involved in terrorism and attacks.
The problem, according to El Pa??s is in the definition, and even more problematic, what might happen to individuals who are deported to nations known to use torture on their own citizens (a list growing increasingly long, and which now includes many western nations). Britain seems to realize this, according to the editorial, in that they have begun an emergency round of negotiations with many nations to guarantee that deportees will not be mistreated upon their return to their nation of citizenship.
The editorial points out that the vague definitions now in place of unacceptable actions significantly restricts human rights, especially freedom of opinion, and could ultimately lead to criminalization of thought, particularly if allowed to be applied retroactively to actions before the recent criminalizations. The author notes that it is not wise to lower our guard against radicals, but neither is it wise to take actions which are certain to radicalize the same. Security and human rights are not incompatible—quite the contrary:
Contra los radicales, no conviene bajar la guardia, pero tampoco radicalizarse uno mismo. Seguridad y derechos humanos no est?°n re?±idos. Todo lo contrario.
The editorial concludes with the warning that it is wise to remember that the problem with terrorism is that it not a problem of immigrants–4 of the subway bombers in London were British citizens–and that raising the standards for citizenship would also be unwise as it would only serve to feed social tension and “islamofobia”.
The full article in PDF is available here.