News online - current lead stories                                                         For full contents see: Statewatch News online with news, analysis, documentation and archives or What's New: which lists all new items on the website. The latest 20 lead items are listed below. New: Statewatch Sitemap EU: Major report from Statewatch and the Transnational Institute: NeoConOpticon - The EU Security-Industrial Complex by Ben Hayes (pdf):181,487 copies downloaded. Executive Summary (pdf) and NeoConOpticon blog UK: Black people are 26 times more likely than whites to face stop and search (Observer, link). Background: Statewatch Analysis: Published in 2005, based on 2003-2004 figures, and also on per 100,000 of the population: Stop & search: Ethnic injustice continues unabated: "Black people are nearly seven times and Asian people over twice as likely to be stopped and searched as white people." EU: European Commission proposal on EURODAC (fingerprint database of asylum-seekers) drops the idea of giving access to law enforcement agencies: Amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the establishment of 'EURODAC' for the comparison of fingerprints for the effective application of Regulation (EC) No […/…] [establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person] (Recast version) (pdf) UK: UPDATE: MPs demand inquiry over flight death (Guardian, link) and Jimmy Mubenga: Questions raised over flight guidelines for deportations (link). Earlier report: Security guards accused over death of man being deported to Angola - Exclusive: Witnesses on BA flight say Jimmy Mubenga was being heavily restrained by guards from private security firm G4S (Guardian, link) IRELAND-NORTHERN IRELAND: Human Rights Commissions: Joint Committee Meeting in Dublin calls on British and Irish Governments to commit to key international standards (pdf) Council of Europe: Human Rights Commissioner, Thomas Hammarberg: Airlines are not immigration authorities (pdf) UK: Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC): Submission to the Joint Committee for Human Rights on the Terrorist Asset-Freezing etc. Bill (pdf) and Scotland Against Criminalising Communities (SACC): Year 10: Six Extraordinary State Powers at the Close of the First Decade of the War on Terror Response From SACC to the Coalition Government's Review of Counter-Terrorism and Security Powers 2010 (pdf) EU: Article 29 Working Party on data protection Opinion 3/2010 on the principle of accountability (pdf) UK: Gareth Peirce: Why I still fight for human rights' - Justice dies when the law is co-opted for political purposes.' (Guardian, link) Libya/Italy: Machine gun attack on Italian fishing boat by Libyan coast guards: what happens during patrols against "illegal" immigration? In the evening of 12 September 2010, an Italian fishing boat with ten crew members on board was fired at repeatedly with a machine gun during a lengthy chase after it failed to stop when called upon to do so by Libyan coast guards in international waters in the Gulf of Sirte (off the Libyan coast). EP-FRANCE-ROMA: ALDE MEPs question to the European Commission: Roma databases and discrimination in France and in the EU (pdf) EU: Fundamental Rights Agency reports: Police Stops and Minorities (pdf) and Understanding and Preventing Discriminatory Ethnic Profiling: A Guide (pdf) UK-EU: The EU Data Protection Directive is to be reviewed. The UK Information Commissioner: The Information Commissioner’s response to the Ministry of Justice’s call for evidence on the current data protection legislative framework (pdf) GREECE: Officer guilty of boy's murder that sparked Greek riots (BBC News, link): "Witnesses said Alexandros Grigoropoulos was shot deliberately A police officer in Greece has been found guilty of murdering a schoolboy during protests in 2008, in a case that sparked weeks of rioting. A court in the town of Amfissa convicted Epaminondas Korkoneas, 38, of the culpable homicide of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos. He was shot dead during anti-government protests on 6 December 2008 in the Athens neighbourhood of Exarchia." France: Unlawful gendarmerie database on Roma people: "A new chapter was added to the recent controversy over France's treatment of Roma people when lawyers Françoise Cotta and William Bourdon told Le Monde newspaper that they had filed a lawsuit on behalf of four associations of Roma people and travellers in Paris on 6 October 2010 concerning an unlawful database held by the gendarmerie (police force with a military status) in Arcueil (Val-de-Marne)." EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council, 7-8 October, 2010, Luxembourg: Press release (pdf): and "B"Points Agenda (pdf) "A" Points Agenda - legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf) and "A" Points - non-legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf) BELGIUM: Pluto author arrested and tortured in Belgium (pdf): "Having just entered Belgium, some two hours earlier, she witnessed violent arrests on the street. When Marianne began taking pictures, she was arrested. She was taken into police custody where she was violently dragged by her hair, chained to a radiator, hit, kicked, spat upon, called a whore, and threatened with sexual assault by the police. She also witnessed the torture of another prisoner also chained to a radiator." See also: Statewatch coverage: Policing of 'noborder camp' in Brussels violates basic civil rights CoE: Council of Europe: Human Rights Commissioner: Debate urgent procedure: Recent rise in national security discourse in Europe : The case of Roma (pdf) EU: IRR European News Team: The IRR publishes today a free briefing a paper from its European Race Audit, Accelerated removals: a study of the human cost of EU deportation policies, 2009-2010. The briefing paper examines the 38 asylum and immigration-related deaths in Europe over an 18-month period. Read an IRR press release here or the Full report (pdf). EU-ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement): Text agreed in Tokyo: Consolidated Text: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement: Informal Pre-decisional/Deliberative Draft: 2 October 2010 (pdf) EU: Justice and Home Affairs Council, 7-8 October, 2010, Luxembourg: Background Note (pdf) and "B"Points Agenda (pdf) "A" Points Agenda - legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf) and "A" Points - non-legislative (adopted without discussion, pdf) European Parliament: Question to Council of the European Union: U.S. access to European police databases (pdf): "According to media articles citing government sources in Vienna, Austria granted to the U.S. access to certain data held in the Austrian police databases. Previously the U.S. had threatened to exclude Austria from the "Visa Waiver Programme" (VWP) and to re-establish the visa requirement for Austrian citizens. In a letter, the U.S. imposed the deadline of 31 December 2010 to reach an agreement with the Austrian authorities on VWP and access to Austrian databases." EU: Council of the European Union intervenes in the France-Roma controversy - proposing the targeting of "mobile (itinerant) criminal groups": "itinerant"=travellers=Roma The Council of the European Union (27 national governments) is discussing a set of Council Conclusions to target "mobile (itinerant) criminal groups": EU doc no: 14277/10 (pdf). The term "itinerant" means, in plain English, "traveller(s)" which, in the context of the ongoing row over France's policies, is a thinly disguised reference to Roma people. Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "Instead of condemning the racism of the French government's policy of systematically expelling Roma people the Council is implicitly condoning them.The fundamental values in Article 2 (TEU) are central to the future of democracy in the EU but if there is no willingness to enforce them then they are fatally undermined." EU-LIBYA: EU signs up to 'unclear' migration pact with Libya (euobserver, link): "The European Union has cautiously agreed to allocate €50 million for projects aimed at improving Libyan treatment of refugees, mostly coming from African conflict zones and heading to Europe. The deal was branded as "worryingly vague" by human rights groups, as Libya does not even recognise the term "asylum seeker."" EU-USA: SWIFT-TFTP agreement: Question to European Commission on: TFTP interim and permanent overseer (pdf): "Can the Commission indicate the legal basis for keeping confidential the identity of the EU public official - interim and/or permanent - overseeing the implementation of the TFTP agreement? Is there any precedent for such a decision or arrangement?" EU-PNR: Council of the European Union: EU external strategy on Passenger Name Record (PNR) data - Handling of draft negotiation mandates for PNR Agreements with Canada, the United States of America and Australia (pdf). The Council is proposing to open negotiations with the USA, Canada and Australia at the same time. The Council says that the Commission Communication Communication on the global approach to transfers of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data to third countries (COM 492, pdf) meets the European Parliament's concerns as expressed in its Resolution on the launch of negotiations for Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreements with the United States, Australia and Canada (pdf) EU: Council of the European Union: "State of play", 27.9.10: Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child-pornography, repealing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA - State of play and: Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings, and protecting victims, repealing Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA (pdf) See also: State of play, May 2009: EU doc no: 9892/09 (pdf) and Commission proposal (pdf) EU: European Journalists Warn EU Home Affairs Chief that European Data Law Threatens Freedom (EFJ, link). See Statewatch Observatory: The surveillance of telecommunications in the EU Netherlands: Analysis of a draft coalition agreement (Note: the new government has not yet been formed): Proposals for revision of EU migration law and international law in the September 2010 Dutch coalition agreement (pdf) by Kees Groenendijk, a Professor of Migration Law at Radboud University Nijmegen. See also: New Dutch government to rest on support of far-right (euobserver, link); EU's centre-right criticises new Dutch government (link): Dutch coalition to target burqas, Muslim immigration (link) EU-ACTA: European Parliament Press release: MEPs call on the Commission to present final ACTA text as soon as possible (pdf) from MEPs Stavros Lambrinidis (Parliament VP, S&D, Greece), Francoise Castex (S&D, France), Zuzana Roithova (EPP, Czech Republic) and Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, Germany). See also: Joint Statement from all the negotiating parties to ACTA (Commission Trade spokesperson, link) and Negotiators Get Close On ACTA, And Continue To Mislead About It (Techdirt, link) Council of Europe: Bureau of the European Committee on legal cooperation: Draft Recommendation on the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data in the framework of profiling and its Draft Explanatory Memorandum (pdf): "In the fight against terrorism, the use of black lists based on statistical inferences is bound to result in non-terrorists being prevented from boarding a plane and offers no absolute guarantee that terrorist passengers will be intercepted." See also: Comments of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, Washington, DC (pdf) European Ombudsman: Summary (pdf) Decision: Alleged refusal to grant access to terrorism related document (pdf): The Council of the European Union argued, and won, this case on the basis that: "disclosure would be detrimental to the good functioning of EU-US relations, and it would hinder diplomatic efforts to find constructive solutions in sensitive political areas." BELGIUM: Policing of 'noborder camp' in Brussels violates basic civil rights IRELAND: Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL): Know your rights (link) includiing: Criminal Justice & Garda Powers (pdf, link), Privacy (pdf, link) and European Convention of Human Rights (pdf, link) EU-FRANCE-ROMA: Amnesty slams Commission's Roma response (European Voice, link) NETHERLANDS: Dutch coalition to target burqas, Muslim immigration (euobserver, link): "Anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders has emerged triumphant in Dutch coalition talks, with the new government to introduce a bill on banning the Muslim face veil and to try to halve the number of non-Western" immigrants in the country." EU: Parliaments to have no say over the "harmonisation" of national ID cards: The Council of the European Union: National ID cards: State of play of identity cards (EU doc no: 13152/1/10, pdf) includes chart with further details on national ID card plans. Background see: Statewatch Briefing: ID Cards in the EU: Current state of play (pdf). The Council Presidency also proposes that as there is no legal basis to discuss "harmonisation" under the comitology procedures (Article 6 Committee) the Lisbon Treaty should be used to extend the scope of the existing False Documents Working Party. So the very same day, 14 September 2010, the Council Presidency also circulated: Presidency's proposal regarding the activities of the Working Party on Frontiers / False Documents (EU doc no:13151/10, pdf), to extend the role of the False Documents Working Party in order to combat organised crime, "illegal" immigration and criminal activities. The Working Party will also be producing "legislative acts" in the "Mixed Committee" (the EU 27 member states plus the additional Schengen members - Norway, Switzerland and Iceland). The legal basis for this change is to be Article 77(3) of the TFEU under Lisbon whereby the Council can adopt measures concerning: "passports, identity cards, residence permits or any other such document with a view to facilitating the freedom of movement in the territory of the Member States" Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments: "Despite the general move to ordinary legislature procedure (co-decision) for the adoption of new measures jointly by the Council and the European Parliament under the Lisbon Treaty a number of policy areas retain the old bad system of simply "consulting" the parliament - and Article 77(3) is one of them. The content (eg fingerprints) and use of data collected, processed, stored and exchanged, within the EU and outside, for passports and ID cards (citizens and resident third-country nationals) is highly controversial. Yet in this critical area affecting peoples' freedom and liberty the European Parliament will simply be "consulted" - asked for its opinion which on historical precedent will simply be ignored and national parliaments will have no role at all." EU: Schengen Information System: SIS II TO HOLD 100 MILLION RECORDS: European Commission Staff Working Paper: Report on the global schedule and budget for the entry into operation of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) (COM 1138, pdf). Delay after delay has put off the introduction of SIS II until 2012. This report contains interesting information on the planned capacity of SIS II. The original specification planned for 15 million records rising to 23 million. However, the growth in the number of member states and more, importantly, the "intensive use" of the system by EU national agencies meant that by January 2010 there were already 31 million "alerts" (records). So planned starting capacity is no 70 million records growing to 100 million. EU-FRONTEX: Amnesty International (AI) and European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) : Briefing on the Commission proposal for a Regulation amending Council Regulation (EC) 2007/2004 establishing a European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX) (pdf) UK-EUROPEAN COMMISSION: Commission refers UK to Court over privacy and personal data protection (Press release, pdf) European Parliament: Situation of Roma in Europe: MEPs quiz the Commission (Press release, pdf) EU: "State of play": Proposal for a Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection and the content of the protection granted (recast) (Latest Council position: EU doc no: 13718/10. pdf). And see European Parliament: Draft report (pdf): Rapporteur: Jean Lambert MEP. EU: European Commission: Recommendation amending the Recommendation establishing a common ''Practical Handbook for Border Guards (Schengen Handbook)'' to be used by Member States' competent authorities when carrying out the border control of persons (C (2006) 5186 final) (COM 5559/10, pdf) EU-ROMA: Roma expulsions are sign of 'dangerous times' in Europe, human rights chief says (euobserver, link): "The French Roma crisis is a sign of a "dangerous" drift to the right in European politics but also an opportunity to do "something real" for the minority, the secretary general of the Council of Europe has said in an interview with EUobserver." See also: EU warns France of action over Roma (BBC News, link): "The European Commission has told France that it faces action over its expulsion of Roma (Gypsy) migrants if it fails to adopt EU rules on freedom of movement by 15 October." EU-ROMA: European Commission: European Commission assesses recent developments in France, discusses overall situation of the Roma and EU law on free movement of EU citizens (Press release, pdf) and Fundamental Rights Agency: Addressing the Roma issue in the EU: Background note (pdf) Updated: EU-USA SWIFT-TFTP AGREEMENT: MEPs demand explanation on US plan to monitor all money transfers (euoberver, link). See also: Money transfers could face anti-terrorism scrutiny (Washington Post, link). US Treasury: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network; Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Cross-Border Electronic Transmittals of Funds (pdf) EU: France and Italy press ahead with anti-Roma policies: France: Immigration law amendment to turn expulsion of EU nationals into routine "Following the controversy that resulted from the large-scale eviction of illegal camps and expulsion of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals from France that have largely targeted Roma people since mid-July, the French government is trying to press ahead with proposals to restrict freedom of movement and facilitate expulsions." and Italy: Interior Minister to press for punishment for EU nationals residing illegally EU: European Parliament draft report to LIBE (Civil Liberties) Committee on: Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection and the content of the protection granted (Recast) (pdf) and Commission proposal (pdf). See also Council of the European Union's position: - Proposal for a Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection and the content of the protection granted (June 2010, pdf) and: Council's position July 2010 (pdf) POLAND-CIA: Lawyers for Rendition Victim Intervene in Polish Investigation of CIA Black Sites (pdf): "Filing Demands that Polish Prosecutor Investigate al-Nashiri’s Illegal Transfer, Detention, and Torture on Polish Soil" FRONTEX-NETHERLANDS: the Dutch position on the handling of asylum requests and the debarkation of migrants intercepted/rescued in FRONTEX Operations. This is clarified in a letter sent by the Dutch Minister of Justice to the Senate’s Chairman: Frontex-Netherlands: Full-text (translation by Matteo Tondini, pdf). The Dutch position can be summarized as follows: 1. Dutch vessels are not a part of Dutch territory; 2. Asylum requests of migrants made on board Dutch vessels must be assessed by a competent authority (not by them, however, but possibly by the host nation); 3. The Netherlands considers this as a conditio sine qua non for its participation in FRONTEX operations at sea. See also: Migrants at sea (link) UK-EU: Home Office: Explanatory memoranda: - EU Counter-terrorism policy: Main achievement and future challenges (pdf) - Information managements in the area of FSJ (pdf) - Proposed Directive on preventing and combatting trafficking human beings and protecting victims (pdf) - UK-opt-out of trafficking Directive: Letter (pdf) - Minimum standards Directive (pdf) EU: European Parliament Studies:- Setting up a Common European Asylum Area (pdf) and Readmission Policy in the European Union (pdf) France/EU - Roma: Circulars about operations to evict illegal camps with full-texts of the three circulars EU COUNCIL MEETING in Brussels (27 governments): Sarkozy denounces EU commissioner's Roma remarks (BBC News, link). Background: Commissioner Reding speech: Statement on the latest developments on the Roma situation (pdf) and internal Commission document: The situation of Roma in France and Europe: Joint Information Note from European Commission (pdf) And: The European Parlianment passed a Resolution by 337 votes to 245 calling on France to 'immediately suspend all expulsions of Roma', saying that they 'amounted to discrimination': Full-text of Resolution (pdf) EU: Commission meeting on body scanners at airports: 2nd Meeting of Commission Task Force on Security Scanners Tuesday 14th September 2010 (pdf) and List of participants (pdf) EU-Commission: Commissioner Reding speech: Statement on the latest developments on the Roma situation (pdf): ""Over the past weeks, the European Commission has been following very closely the developments in France regarding the Roma. I personally have been appalled by a situation which gave the impression that people are being removed from a Member State of the European Union just because they belong to a certain ethnic minority. This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the Second World War." and EU set to take France to court over Roma policy (euobserver, link) and CoE: Human Rights Commissioner: Do not stigmatise Roma (link) EU-Roma: The situation of Roma in France and Europe: Joint Information Note from European Commission (pdf, dated 1 September 2010). See also: Scapegoating and bigotry - Strategy needed to end Europe's Roma shame (GUE/NGL press release, link) and Barroso makes veiled criticism of French anti-Gypsy campaign (Guardian, link). - Full contents of Statewatch News online with news, analysis and documentation - In the News carries link to news coverage from across the EU - What's New covers all new items on the website Top reports 2004-2010 See: Tony Bunyan's column in the Guardian: View from the EU UK: Statewatch Analysis: Rolling back the authoritarian state? An analysis of the coalition government’s commitment to civil liberties (pdf) by Max Rowlands Statewatch analysis: Intensive surveillance of “violent radicalisation” extended to embrace suspected “radicals” from across the political spectrum: Targets include: “Extreme right/left, Islamist, nationalist, anti-globalisation etc” (pdf) by Tony Bunyan. EU: Statewatch Analysis: The proposed European Investigation Order: Assault on human rights and national sovereignty (pdf) by Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of Essex: "the combined abolition of dual criminality and territoriality requirements represents both a fundamental threat to the rule of law in criminal law matters – which is required by Article 7 ECHR (legal certainty of criminal offences) and Article 8 ECHR in this field (invasions of privacy must be in accordance with the law) – and an attack on the national sovereignty of Member States, which would in effect lose their power to define what acts are in fact criminal if committed on the territory of their State." European Commission: Stockholm Programme: Statewatch Analysis: Action Plan on the Stockholm Programme: A bit more freedom and justice and a lot more security (pdf) by Tony Bunyan Statewatch Analysis: The right to protest: “Troublemakers” and “travelling violent offenders [undefined] to be recorded on database and targeted by Tony Bunyan: "Since the onset of the EU’s response to the “war on terrorism” the prime targets have been Muslim and migrant communities together with refugees and asylum-seekers. Now there is an emerging picture across the EU that demonstrations and the democratic right to protest are among the next to be targeted to enforce “internal security”. Statewatch Analysis: EU proposals to increase the financial transparency of charities and non-profit organisations by Ben Hayes: "The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has strongly promoted the thesis that terrorist organisations use laundered money for their activities, and that charities are a potential conduit for terrorist organisations." SPECIAL STATEWATCH REPORT: The Shape of Things to Come - the EU Future Group (Version.1.3) by Tony Bunyan: 61,036 copies downloaded. The report calls for a “meaningful and wide-ranging debate” before it is “too late” for privacy and civil liberties. The proposals set out by the shadowy "Future Group" set up by the Council of the European Union include a range of highly controversial measures including new technologies of surveillance, enhanced cooperation with the United States and harnessing the "digital tsunami". In the words of the EU Council presidency: "Every object the individual uses, every transaction they make and almost everywhere they go will create a detailed digital record. This will generate a wealth of information for public security organisations, and create huge opportunities for more effective and productive public security efforts." This major new report The Shape of Things to come (60 pages) examines the proposals of the Future Group and their effect on civil liberties. It shows how European governments and EU policy-makers are pursuing unfettered powers to access and gather masses of personal data on the everyday life of everyone – on the grounds that we can all be safe and secure from perceived “threats”. The Statewatch report calls for a “meaningful and wide-ranging debate” before it is “too late” for privacy and civil liberties. See also ongoing: Statewatch Observatory: The Stockhom Programme Statewatch publication: Border wars and asylum crimes by Frances Webber (38 pages, pdf - 4.685 copies downloaded: "When the pamphlet ‘Crimes of Arrival’ was written, in 1995, the title was a metaphor for the way the British government, in common with other European governments, treated migrants and especially, asylum seekers. Now, a decade on, that title describes a literal truth.... There is a frightening continuity between the treatment of asylum claimants and that of terrorist suspects. In the name of the defence of our way of life and our enlightenment values from attack by terrorists or by poor migrants, that way of life is being destroyed by creeping authoritarianism, and those values – amongst which the most important is the universality of human rights – betrayed." See also: Crimes of arrival: immigrants and asylum-seekers in the new Europe (12 pages, 1995, pdf). To order hard-copy see: Statewatch Publications EU: The dream of total data collection by Heiner Busch. Status quo and future plans for EU information systems Terrorist lists" still above the law by Ben Hayes EU: Secret trilogues and the democratic deficit by Tony Bunyan EU: Returns Directive: "Against the Outrageous Directive" speech given by Yasha Maccanico in EP Cementing the European state by Tony Bunyan, New emphasis on internal security and operational cooperation at EU level EU-SIS Schengen Infornation System Article 99 report by Ben Hayes Policing protests in Switzerland, Italy and Germany The surveillance of travel in the EU where everyone is a suspect by Tony Bunyan EU: Statewatch Report: Arming Big Brother: new research reveals the true costs of Europe's security-industrial complex by Ben Hayes (pdf, April 2006). The European Union is preparing to spend hundreds of million on new research into surveillance and control technologies, according to Arming Big Brother, a new report by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Statewatch. Press release (English) Press release (Spanish, link) Copy of full report (English, pdf) Copy of full report (Spanish, pdf) Hard copies of Arming Big Brother can be obtained from: The Transnational Institute, please send an e-mail to: wilbert@tni.org with your request. EU: "Unaccountable Europe" by Tony Bunyan (Statewatch editor) in Special issue of Index on Censorship: "Big Brother Goes Global" (December 2005) Europe: Launch of the European Civil Liberties Network (link) - The ECLN was launched on 19 October 2005 as a long-term project to develop a platform for groups working on civil liberties issues across Europe. A collection of "Essays in defence of civil liberties and democracy" was published to mark the launch the ECLN Global surveillance: Global coalition launch report and international surveillance campaign: Statewatch, with partner organisations the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Focus on the Global South, Friends Committee (US) and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (Canada) today publishes an in-depth report: "The emergence of a global infrastructure for registration and surveillance" (20 April, 2005). Statewatch report: Journalism, civil liberties and the war on terrorism (full-report/request printed copy) - Special report by the International Federation of Journalists and Statewatch including an analysis of current policy developments as well as a survey of 20 selected countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin Amercia, the Middle East and the USA (published World press freedom day, 1 May 2005) Statewatch analysis: The exceptional and draconian become the norm - G8 and EU counter-terrorism plans (updated 26 March 2005 pdf) Statewatch "Scoreboard" on EU counter-terrorism plans (pdf) agreed in the wake of the Madrid bombings. Our analysis shows that 27 out of the 57 EU proposals have little or nothing to do with tackling terrorism - they deal with crime in general and surveillance: Analysis in Spanish (March 2004) The road to "1984" Part II: Everyone in the EU will have to have their fingerprints taken to get a passport (February 2004) The Statewatch website Since its launch this website has had 10,186,696, user sessions and 47,239,694 "hits" (August 2010) In the year 2009 there were 1,263,573 user sessions with 7,305,161 "hits" Join Statewatch regular e-mail list for new stories: Join Statewatch news e-mail list Statewatch is registered under the Data Protection Act. Information supplied will be not be passed to third parties The Statewatch searchable database now holds more than 25,000 records (news, features, analyses and documentation): Search database If you use this site regularly, you are encouraged to make a donation to Statewatch to support future research. Statewatch is a non-profitmaking voluntary group founded in 1991, see: About Statewatch Contributions to News online and bulletin are welcomed e-mail: office@statewatch.org Statewatch, PO Box 1516, London N16 0EW, UK UK: tel: 020 8802 1882 fax: 020 8880 1727 International: tel: 00 44 20 8802 1882  fax: 00 44 20 8880 1727 The Statewatch website is hosted by the Phone Co-op: Statewatch is funded by         Friends of Statewatch Statewatch does not have a corporate view, nor does it seek to create one, the views expressed are those of the author. Statewatch Is not responsible for the content of external websites and inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement. © Statewatch ISSN 1756-851X. Personal usage as private individuals/"fair dealing" is allowed. We also welcome links to material on our site. Usage by those working for organisations is allowed only if the organisation holds an appropriate licence from the relevant reprographic rights organisation (eg: Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK) with such usage being subject to the terms and conditions of that licence and to local copyright law.