Human Rights 'sidelined' Since September 11

Amnesty International today condemned the very governments which had set up human rights statutes for undermining them in the name of anti-terrorism measures after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Launching its annual report on human rights around the world, the organisation said governments fearing terrorism have been "increasingly sidelining human rights in name of security" and claimed that democracies, rather than dictatorships, had been taking the lead in curbing civil liberties.

The UK was criticised for passing the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act, which allows for the indefinite detention of foreign nationals without charge or trial.

"Our fears were realised as a shadow criminal justice system was created in the UK without the essential safeguards of the formal system, and up to nine people are now being held within it," the report said.

A Home Office spokeswoman today defended the act, saying: "We believe it is a proportionate response to a change in the landscape after September 11."

She confirmed that a total of 11 foreign nationals had been detained, eight in December, one in February and two last month.

Nine remain in custody under the terms of the act, but two have voluntarily left the UK.

The spokeswoman said that the suspects had been detained rather than deported because they could face torture, death or abuse of their human rights in their home nation.

The report said a number of governments had passed similar measures, including the creation of special courts based on secret evidence that in some cases amounted to "shadow criminal justice systems".

Amnesty also pointed to long-standing human rights agreements, such as the Geneva Convention, which it claimed had been set to one side during the war in Afghanistan.

Singling out the US refusal to categorise the detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as prisoners of war, the organisation said: "The treatment of detainees in Guantanamo appears to have prompted some governments to believe that the inhumane treatment of prisoners is now acceptable."

The report also highlighted an increase in racist and anti-Semitic attacks in wake of September 11.

Amnesty said that government restrictions on the rights of foreigners had stoked racist notions that certain types of people were terrorists.

"People were attacked in the USA, Europe, Canada, parts of Asia and Africa not for what they did but for who they were," the report said.

The report lists human rights abuses in 152 countries, including illegal executions in 47 countries and torture in 111. The report also lists disappearances and imprisonment without trial around the world.

In Europe, some of the worst abuses took place in the Balkan region, particularly in Macedonia, where the organisation reported that 140,000 civilians were displaced between March and August.

Both the Macedonian security forces and armed ethnic Albanians were accused of killing civilians.