Civil Contingengies Bill Arrrghhhh

[Claire]

CIVIL CONTINGENCIES BILL
This Bill could:
Suspend Democracy,
Suspend Parliament for 5 days,
Repeal acts which protect our civil liberties,
Interpret the meaning of disaster or emergency to eg include destroying gm crops.

Please ring the House of Lords THIS week (beg. of October) 0207 219 3107 day; 0207 219 5353 24hrs and ask for strong amendments. Ask to speak to Lord Beaumont, Law lords, lib dems, indeps

[Zonk]

Cool, thanks Claire.:)

[Claire]

Here's the bill in full: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmbills/053/04053.iii-iv.html

[Paul]

Gonna read this carefully, but from what I can see some of it might be contestable under the European Convention on Human Rights (http://www.hrcr.org/docs/Eur_Convention/euroconv.html).

Something in there about rights of association and assembly

[Paul]

ARTICLE 11
1.Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others, including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

2.No restrictions shall be placed on the exercise of these rights other than such as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. this article shall not prevent the imposition of lawful restrictions on the exercise of these rights by members of the armed forces, of the police or of the administration of the State.
Athough its one of those things that can be interpreted in many ways.

I think Article 15 has already been brought into play though, its basically an opt out, however I think that it has so far only been applied to article 5 (arrest and detention laws):

ARTICLE 15

1.In time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation any High Contracting Party may take measures derogating from its obligations under this Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with its other obligations under international law.

If anyone makes that call it might be worth asking how this new law will affect the human rights convention