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By Frances Webber

Frances Webber, human rights lawyer, examines Lord Carlile’s Report on five years operation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Next month sees the fifth anniversary of the control order regime, introduced in haste in March 2005 after the strategy of internment, which applied only to foreign terror suspects, was declared unlawful and discriminatory. Now, control orders too are discredited for their reliance on secret evidence and their devastating impact on those subjected to them.

The fact that there have been so few control orders in the five years of their operation - forty-four in total - gives the misleading impression that those controlled must be truly dangerous. But the small number of orders doesn’t necessarily mean that the intelligence behind them is accurate. After all, not many people were hanged for murder when the UK had capital punishment - but a significant proportion of those who were judicially murdered turn out to have been innocent. In the words of human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce, ‘This may affect only a small group of people but in terms of its contribution to what one might call the folklore of injustice it is colossal.’ (more…)

On January 31st, the deadline passed for countries to submit their pledged targets to be included in the Copenhagen Accord, the 3-page document that emerged from the Copenhagen climate talks in December and set up an architecture for countries to commit to their own chosen targets, and
have them reviewed by an international body. The deadline has come
and go, and 97 countries have chosen to associate themselves with the
Accord; yet Bolivia, now one of the leaders of progressive governments on climate change, is quick to point out that while the countries involved may represent a large percentage of global emissions (80%), their actual commitments are simply not up to the task of getting us to 350ppm.

Bolivia and it’s ALBA allies, along with Tuvalu, Sudan, and a few other vulnerable nations, were the few countries who stood firm till the very end in Copenhagen when the unambitious Copenhagen Accord was being thrust upon delegates in the final hours. Without their courage and opposition
to the weak document, the Accord would likely have been adopted,
making it far easier for leaders like Barack Obama to call the summit
a victory. Instead, world leaders had to admit that this agreement
was not enough, and that we would have to keep working hard in 2010.
And what’s important is that the media reported this to the wider
public - while this may not seem like much solace, it’s key to
continuing the momentum of our movement that the general public
understand that we are not done yet. (more…)

The Togo presidential elections are now due to be held on March 4 following protests from the main opposition parties. The election which was originally set for February 28 has now been delayed until March 4 following opposition protests.

A presidential decree read out on state television announced on Thursday “The date for the presidential election is fixed for Thursday, March 4. Polling stations will be open from 07:00 to 17:00 throughout the country.”

The delay comes in response to a request from the opposition during talks in Burkina Faso with President Blaise Compaore who is mediating inter-Togolese dialogue.

“With the aim of permanently seeking consensus and maintaining a peaceful climate during the electoral process, the head of state (Faure Gnassingbe), in consultation with Compaore, decided during a cabinet meeting to delay the election.”

Campaigning for the presidential election in Togo started on February 16 and will last until March 2, meanwhile Togo’s main opposition parties have quit the commission organising the presidential elections.

President Faure Gnassingbe of the Togolese People’s Rally, Gnassingbé was initially installed as President with support from the army following the death of his father Gnassingbé Eyadéma Doubts, whom was President of Togo from 1967 until his death.

Faure Gnassingbe’s unconstitutional accession was later confirmed by electora1 fraud, when following pressure from neighbouring African nations Faure Gnassingbé, resigned on February 25. He then won a controversial presidential election on April 24 and was sworn in as President again.

The 2005 Presidential election fraud was recorded in the film ‘Masquerade’ which documents the fraudulent presidential elections in the west African state of Togo in 2005, the film was edited and produced by Jaarice in Burkina Faso and released in 2007. The film Masquerade was the subject of a previous Paxmundi.info article here. (more…)