Comment From Peace Movement Aotearoa

Kia ora,

How very appropriate that on the day the US government announces 'rules' for conducting military tribunals for the prisoners from their war against the people of Afghanistan, here the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee reports back to parliament on the Terrorism Suppression Bill.

While the penalties under the Bill (unlike Bush's military tribunals) do not include the death sentence, nevertheless the Terrorism Suppression Bill marks the single greatest legislative erosion of human rights and the due process of law in this country since those Acts passed in the late 1800s which took away the right to trial - in particular the Maori Prisoners Trials Act of 1879 and the Maori Prisoners Act of 1880.

The Select Committee's report back to parliament (which will be available on the parliamentary website on Monday) has recommended some changes to the original Bill, but these changes are mere tinkering with a piece of legislation which is fundamentally flawed.

From what we understand, none of the substantive issues or concerns raised during written and oral submissions have been reflected in the Select Committee's recommendations. The Bill will go for its second reading with its basic provisions essentially unchanged.

The government's purported reason for the Terrorism Suppression Bill is to implement United Nation's Security Council Resolution 1373 - but that resolution has already been put into effect by the United Nations Sanctions (Terrorism Suppression and Afghanistan Measures) Regulations 2001, Order in Council, 26 November 2001; and the United Nations Sanctions (Afghanistan) Amendment Regulations 2001, Order in Council, 26 November 2001 which amends the United Nations Sanctions (Afghanistan) Regulations 2001, Order in Council, 12 March 2001.

And in their haste to pass the Bill to allegedly implement that one Resolution, the government has not taken into account successive resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly in its discussions about terrorism over a number of years. These have always referred to the need for states to respect human rights, to be guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or similar.

For example, UN General Assembly Resolution 55/158 'Measures to eliminate international terrorism' (adopted in January 2001) specifically states in point 3: "Reiterates its call upon all States to adopt further measures in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, and the relevant provisions of international law, including international standards of human rights, to prevent terrorism ..." It is clearly evident that there is a duty for UN member states to ensure care is taken to preserve and enhance, not erode and destroy, human rights in any measure to assist the elimination of terrorism.

The basic provisions of the Terrorism Suppression Bill which allow for the withholding of evidence against an accused person (if it is "classified security information" provided by an agency, government etc of another country) clearly do not comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Covenant (which was ratified by the NZ government in December 1978) states in Article 14: 14.1 "everyone shall be entitled to a fair and public hearing" and 14.3.E - "in the determination of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to the following minimum guarantees .... To examine, or have examined, the witnesses against him"

The Bill is similarly in breach of Section 25 of the NZ Bill of Rights Act which states "everyone who is charged with an offence has, in relation to the determination of the charge, the following minimum rights: 25a) the right to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial court ... 25f) the right to examine witnesses for the prosecution".

Aside from these underlying breaches of existing international Covenants and domestic legislation, if the Bill passes into law it will have far reaching negative impacts in other ways - as but one example, the reliance the Bill places on so called evidence from an agency, government etc of another country may harm people applying for asylum, or already part of the refugee and migrant communities in this country, because there is no provision in the proposed legislation for the protection of people falsely and maliciously designated 'terrorist' by oppressive governments or their agencies.

There is no absolutely no need for this legislation, as Keith Locke says: "I question the need for this bill at all: real terrorism is essentially criminal behaviour and should be dealt with through amendments to criminal law, rather than through political legislation, like this bill."

If you are planning on contacting your MP, and/or the mass media to express your outrage about this Bill, there is more information available on the PMA website at http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/terrosub.htm

The index page there has copies of, or links to, the written submissions sent to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Select Committee opposing the Bill by: Northland Urban Rural Mission, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Aotearoa), Jane Kelsey, GATT Watchdog, Peter Wills, Socialist Party of Aotearoa, Socialist Workers Organization, Latin America Committee, Indonesia Human Rights Committee, Peace Council, Anti Bases Campaign, Arena, and the Churches Agency on Social Issues; as well as links to background information - 'NZ government assets to be frozen?' (PMA / Arena, 30 October 2001) and the Amnesty International report on their concerns with security and anti-terrorism legislation globally.

As soon as the timetable for the second and third readings of the Bill is available, we will let you know.