Anti-terrorism legislation promotes abuse of the state

The main concern that we have with anti-terrorist laws is that they give excessive power to the state. The power they give is substantial enough to create the abuses of human rights where the detainees are not subject to humane and fair treatment. The mechanism is as follows. The anti-terrorism legislation gives broad discretionary powers for enforcement agencies. It can enable unlimited detention; deny the basic rights of defense. Finally, the enforcement agencies are to a large extent not accountable for their actions. When we combine unlimited detention and denial to impartial court with poor accountability of enforcement agencies, it should come as a no big surprise that such repugnant human right violations as torture start taking place. Now once we established the mechanism, let’s take a look at how that happens in real life, if happens at all. Sri Lanka adopted Provision of Temporary Act in 1979 which is an anti-terrorist legislation[[http://www.tamilnation.org/srilankalaws/79pta.htm]]. Does it give any substantial powers to the state? Well, for instance, we think that the rights of police officers to arrest any person, search any premises, stop and search any vehicle and seize any personal belongings WITHOUT ANY WARRANT speak for themselves. This is merely one article from the whole legislation which extensively violates the concept of human justice as we imagine it nowadays. It should not come as a big surprise that legislation was followed by decades of substantial human right violations by the state. Torturing with burning cigarettes, depriving of food and sleep, using iron rods to humiliate and inflict strong pain is a proven record in the prisons of Sri Lanka[[http://www.tamilnation.org/saty/9806torture.htm]]. Scholars conclude that “draconian measures taken by Sri Lanka have only enhanced the cycle of violence, leading to the destruction of the social and political fabric of a democratic society.”[[Radhika Coomaraswamy and Charmaine de los Reyes, “Rule by Emergency: Sri Lanka’s Post Colonial Constitutional Experience”, in International Journal of Constitutional Law, Vol.2, No. 2, April 2004, p. 272.]] But the government can easily ensure that bad things do not happen by enacting appropriate provisions, right? It seems that reality is just so much more complicated. Sri Lanka adopted Torture Act in 1994 which was supposed to solve the problem. The result is enormous amounts of indictments and only three (!) convictions over 13 years with torture and human right abuses as prominent as before[[http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=24457]]. But these are very bad people who are tortured, no? Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act was established in 1987 in India. It appears that under the act 77,550 persons had been arrested. 8000 of them had been tried and 725 actually convicted until the Act was abolished in 1995[[Assessing Damage, Urging Action. Report of the Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-terrorism and Human Rights.]]. It does not take a genius to figure out that with this proportion of arrested to convicted people (more than 100-1); most of the people arrested had no relation to terrorism whatsoever. But the arbitrary nature of the Act allowed numerous violations of human rights; something you would normally expect when for questioning the sovereignty of India you can be imprisoned for life[[http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/document/actandordinances/Tada.htm#4]]. Now obviously these are evil and corrupt countries and this would not happen in countries with strong democratic traditions? The assertion does not ring true taking into account recent developments. The example of Guantanamo Bay detention camp is well known[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guantanamo_Bay_detention_camp]]. Despite the strong traditions of liberty and protection of human dignity, the government of the United States seems to be generally supportive of the inhumane actions in Guantanamo Bay detention camp. It is most definitely not the case that anti-terrorism legislation is something that has a marginal impact on our everyday life. We see cases of public abuse again and again. A 16-year-old boy not only taken away from his home in Indiana and having his belongings seized, but also being held by FBI for months is quite an example of the extraordinary power the anti-terrorism legislation gives to enforcing agencies[[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=97099]]. When 12-year-old kid researches information about the Bay Bridge, FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force arrive to the school[[http://www.prisonplanet.com/211003boyinvestigated.html]]. The evidence that the state actually abuses its powers is abundant. In these cases, the anti-terrorism legislation once again strikes back against us when it just allows enforcement agencies to violate human rights and disrespect fundamental human dignity.