Liberty - Protecting civil liberties, promoting human rights

However, any measures taken to counter terrorism must be proportionate and not undermine our democratic values. In particular, laws designed to protect people from the threat of terrorism and the enforcement of these laws must be compatible with people’s rights and freedoms.

Yet, all too often the risk of terrorism has been used as the basis for eroding our human rights and civil liberties:

• From 1969 to 2000 Parliament passed a number of temporary Prevention of Terrorism Acts, which included powers of internment and the removal of the right to trial by jury in Northern Ireland;
  

• After the tragic events of 11 September, 2001, emergency laws were passed which allowed for the indefinite detention of foreign nationals who were suspected of being terrorists. Under this law individuals could be detained for an unlimited period at a maximum security prison despite never being charged, let alone convicted of any offence;
  

• After a 2004 court ruling that indefinite detention breached human rights law, these laws were quickly replaced by the control order regime in 2005. Following the 2010 Home Office counter-terrorism review, control orders were scrapped in January 2012 but replaced with something almost identical that replicates the regime’s worst aspects - Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIMs). Like Control orders, TPIMs allow for indefinite house arrest and other sweeping restrictions on individual freedoms on the basis of largely secret intelligence and suspicion;

• The maximum period of detention without charge for most criminal suspects is 24 to 96 hours. But between 2006 and 2011 terrorism suspects could be detained for up to 28 days without charge. Despite this period being far longer than the period of pre-charge detention in any comparable democracy, Parliament also considered (and defeated) proposals first for 90 days and then for 42 days pre-charge detention;
  

• Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 allowed people to be stopped and searched without suspicion. This overly broad power was used against peaceful protesters and disproportionately against ethnic minority groups;
  

• Broad new speech offences impact on free speech rights and non-violent groups have been outlawed;
  

Read more in our overview of terrorism legislation or use our Bill Tracker tool to follow the progress of the Protection of Freedoms Bill which contains many proposed changes to current counter terrorism laws.

We believe that terrorism can and must be fought within the rule of law and the human rights framework. Repression and injustice, and the criminalisation of non-violent speech and protest make us less safe, not more. These measures act as a recruiting sergeant to the extremist fringe and marginalise those whose support is vital to effectively fight the terrorist threat.

They also undermine the values that separate us from the terrorist, the very values we should be fighting to protect.