NEWSDESK

• The government's use of unreliable promises contained in "memorandums of understanding" to return terrorism suspects to countries, including Jordan and Libya, where they face the risk of torture. The government has pursued this policy despite clear evidence that such "diplomatic assurances" from countries where torture is a problem are an ineffective safeguard against abuse.
• The UK's attempts to persuade the European Court of Human Rights to overturn long-standing case law by allowing an exception on the total ban on returns to risk of ill-treatment. The UK is arguing for the change in an intervention in the case of Ramzy v. the Netherlands (a dispute about whether an Algerian terrorism suspect will face torture if he is returned to his home country).
• The extension of the period that terrorism suspects can be detained without charge from 14 to 28 days, the longest in the European Union. The government has signaled it intends to renew efforts to extend pre-charge detention to 90 days – equivalent to the average time served in a six-month prison sentence – despite the lack of any evidence that such an extraordinary period is needed to investigate those suspected of terrorism offences.
• The use of control orders that seriously restrict liberty on the basis of evidence that falls well below that required to convict a person for a crime. British courts have already struck down eight out of 19 control orders issued on the grounds that they breached human rights.
• The government's enactment into law of the offense of "encouragement of terrorism," which criminalizes "glorification" of terrorism in a way that at best has a chilling effect on free speech and at worst violates the right to free expression.
• The government's refusal to allow the use of intercept evidence, acquired by phone tap, to facilitate the prosecution of those accused of involvement in terrorism. The UK is the only Western country with such a total ban. Earlier this month, the government's "discussion paper" on proposed counterterrorism legislation indicated a review of the ban by a committee of privy counsellors.