Government plans to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days are "unnecessary, disproportionate and counter-productive" and should be rejected when they come before the House of Lords next week, an international human rights group said today.
Human Rights Watch said that the 28-day detention period introduced by former prime minister Tony Blair is already "excessive" and violates Britain's obligations under European and global conventions.
And the report warned that other features of the counter-terrorism bill - such as post-charge questioning and secret inquests - are incompatible with the UK's duties under international human rights law.
Gordon Brown needed the support of the nine Democratic Unionist MPs to get the bill through the Commons and faces further difficulties in the Lords, where it has its second reading on Tuesday - a day after the third anniversary of the July 7 bombings in London.
Human Rights Watch's western Europe researcher Judith Sunderland urged peers to reject key parts of the bill, including 42-day detention.
"The third anniversary of the 2005 bombings in London reminds us that Britain faces a real terror threat," she said. "But locking people up without charge for six weeks will not make the country safer. The Lords should take a principled stand against this dangerous and unnecessary proposal."
In today's report, Human Rights Watch said it was convinced that the current 28-day period "already violates the right to liberty under the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights".
It concluded: "Further extension would be unnecessary, disproportionate and counter-productive."
The report warned that the bill's provision for post-charge questioning "lacks adequate safeguards against violations of the right to silence and against oppressive questioning, undermining the right to a fair trial".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/jul/04/terrorism.civilliberties
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