British security laws are eroding human rights, says UN

[Dover]

Source: Telegraph

A report from the UN's committee on human rights hit out at Britain's terror and libel laws and use of the Offical Secrets Act.

The UN said provisions under the Terrorism Act 2006 covering encouragement of terrorism are too "broad and vague" which could infringe on freedom of expression.

Under the new law people convicted of encouragement of terrorism face up to seven years in jail even if they did not intend to incite violence.

advertisement"In particular, a person can commit the offence even when he or she did not intend members of the public to be directly or indirectly encouraged by his or her statement to commit acts of terrorism, but where his or her statement was understood by some members of the public as encouragement to commit such acts," concluded the committee.

The body also said tough libel laws should be reformed to end "libel tourism" - where people come to the UK to sue over articles they would not be able to pursue in their own countries.

And it said the use of the Official Secrets Act was gagging civil servants from bringing issues of genuine public interest to wider attention even when national security was not at risk...cont'd



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/08/14/noindex/un.xml