'War on Terror' illegal says International Commission

A three-year global study by the International Commission of Jurists says that the UK and the US have "actively undermined" international law in the way they fight terrorism.

"It concluded that many measures introduced to fight terrorism were illegal and counter-productive."

The report comes just days after the latest police outrage in which a Palestine Aid convoy was stopped on the M65 motorway, nine members of the convoy were arrested under the Terrorism Act and kept hand-cuffed for six hours before six were released with no charge though their cellphones and passports were witheld.

The repeated abuse of the Terrorism Act is just one case in point which reflects the ICJ's findings. An earlier article below highlights the fact that in 2008 where the UK police used Section 44 of the Act to stop and search 360,000 people, not one was later charged.

"The ICJ report recommended an urgent review of counter-terrorism laws and policies to prevent serious and permanent damage to fundamental human rights principles."

This repeated abuse of the terror laws by the police is very much what the new report is about. But left to itself it is highly unlikely that the government will pay very much attention or make any effort to stop the abuse. Only a concerted public campaign is likely to have any effect. Conversely, in its absence the abuses will simply continue to multiply in their numbers.