Human Rights and all that jazz

[mrph]

USA - Guantanamo tribunals declared 'illegal' by the Supreme Court

UK - Anti-terror control orders "the antithesis of liberty", quashed by High Court

I happen to believe that both of these decisions are a Good Thing. I'm not saying that these people are innocent and should be released - but they deserve a trial, just like everyone else.

Indefinite detention without trial - without a chance to challenge the evidence against you - should not be an option. Partly because it's an abuse of human rights. Partly because it's been tried before and just doesn't seem to work.

Interesting to see that the two judgements were within a day of each other, btw...

Comments

[zotz]

I happen to believe that both of these decisions are a Good Thing.

That is, of course, just an opinion. The fact that it's also the opinion of all right-thinking people is neither here nor there.

It's all falling apart, isn't it? And not before time.

[jorune.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it; Yes there is a wonderful synchronicity to it. Hopefully the US/UK can now begin to put this woeful episode behind them. Hopefully they can reflect on their past and begin anew.

" You might however consider whether you should not unfold as a background the great privilege of habeas corpus and trial by jury, which are the supreme protection invented by the English people for ordinary individuals against the state. The power of the Executive to cast a man in prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist. "

In a telegram by Winston Churchill from Cairo, Egypt to Home Secretary Herbert Morrison (21 November 1943)


On a smaller scale SCO lost the right to claim megadamages in their legal challenges with IBM - http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=32705

[mister-jack.livejournal.com]

Methinks a in-your-face dance is in order.