Source: http://statewatch.org/whatsnew-18-04-apr.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 02:36:05+00:00

Document:
"The domestic secret services in Schengen states exchange real-time data on terrorism and operate a database of individuals. A Dutch review of the cooperation has revealed several deficits. The data protection commissioners in the member states involved thus need to work together to ensure oversight."
"Athens rushes to counter fears of new crisis after arrival of nearly 3,000 people in April.
Greece has rushed to reinforce its land border with Turkey as fears mount over a sharp rise in the number of refugees and migrants crossing the frontier.
Police patrols were augmented as local authorities said the increase in arrivals had become reminiscent of the influx of migrants on the Aegean islands close to the Turkish coast. About 2,900 people crossed the land border in April, by far surpassing the number who arrived by sea, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said. The figure represents half of the total number of crossings during the whole of 2017."
"n an opinion editorial that more than 20 leading news outlets published today, ahead of World Press Freedom Day, Commissioner Mijatovic called on member states to improve the safety of journalists.
The article shows the extent of the threats journalists face in Europe, calls upon states to protect them and recommends concrete action that states should take.
Underscoring that the many threats that fuel insecurity among journalists in Europe are also undermining democracy, the Commissioner urges member states to increase the protection of journalists, end impunity for crimes against them, improve legislation and change the hostile attitude many politicians have towards the press.
The murders of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Ján Kuciak and many other journalists were not due to fate, but to structural deficiencies in state institutions that should have protected them, she writes. This situation endangers journalists as much as democracy. It is high time that states acknowledge it and ensure the safety of journalists and other media actors."
"European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier warned Britain Sunday (29 April) that the time has now come to resolve the contradictions over the Northern Irish border, ahead of a visit to the island.
Barnier, who will spend Monday and Tuesday on either side of the Irish divide, reiterated that the EU will not conclude an agreement with Britain until it details how there will be no post-Brexit return to a hard border.
In case there is any doubt whatsoever about our commitment to this, let me be crystal clear: we will not conclude the withdrawal agreement with the UK unless we have such a solution included in the text, he wrote in an article for Irelands Sunday Independent."
"Refugee campaigner Lord Dubs has tabled a Brexit bill amendment to force the government to continue to give refugee children sanctuary post-Brexit.
Dubs has tabled an amendment to the European Union (withdrawal) bill that will include a specific provision for unaccompanied refugee minors stranded on the continent who have family in the UK already.
He said he found the Windrush scandal shameful and the amendment was important to ensure the cold indifference of the government was not the determining factor when it came to children seeking refuge for war and conflict zones."
32 of the 35 defendants were found guilty of injury to public officials, but acquitted on all other charges. The three individuals detained by a firefighter outside Moria Camp were found innocent of all charges; the testimony against them discredited as inconsistent and lacking credibility as the firefighter misidentified the defendants in court. (...)"
"In a landmark victory for privacy rights, the High Court has today ruled part of the Governments flagship surveillance law, the Investigatory Powers Act, is unlawful  following a legal challenge from human rights campaigning organisation Liberty.
In this first stage of its comprehensive challenge to the law, Liberty focused on government powers to order private companies to store everybodys communications data, including internet history, so that state agencies can access it. Liberty argued that retaining every persons data in this way without limits and safeguards violates the UK publics right to privacy. "
"Most LGBTI people in Turkey today are living in more fear than ever before, an activist tells me when we meet in a café in Istanbul on a cloudy day in February. She is too afraid for me to share her name.
"Yesterday it was announced that a new EU law on travel authorisation for non-EU citizens to visit the EU had been agreed. This will affect millions of travellers a year, probably including British citizens after Brexit. In fact, as a UK citizen who often travels to the continent, its the first EU law on non-EU immigration that will have a direct impact on me. The law wont apply for awhile, but in light of its future significant impact and some public confusion about who it will apply to and how it works, its worth explaining in detail."
"A series of leaked letters and briefing papers from the Northern Ireland executive  at least one of which was sent to Olly Robbins, the prime ministers most senior Brexit adviser  lay bare the huge difficulties created by Brexit.
The political difficulty of accepting the EUs backstop solution of keeping Northern Ireland in the customs union and a large bulk of single market legislation was discussed."
"The reference to a "European visa" was misleading, but the new European Travel Information and Authorisation System (Etias), agreed on Wednesday, will impose "a travel authorisation fee of 7" on all "visa-exempt third country nationals" when it enters into life.
Etias, which is modelled on the US visa-waiver system, is designed to increase border security in times of mass migration and a heightened terrorist threat.
Visitors to the EU, including from the US, will have to file an online application, which will be cross-checked against EU states' crime databases and those of Interpol, the international police agency.
Most will get a travel permit "automatically and quickly" and the 7 fee will keep them covered for three years."
Interconnecting the EU's policing and migration databases would make "additional data visible to authorities who would otherwise not have access," according to the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), despite the Commission's claims that its "interoperability" proposals would make no such changes.
"...we know that around 150 undercover police officers infiltrated over one thousand British political groups across four decades, forming long-term relationships with women, fathering children, and engaging in some of the most radical direct action.
Police officers appeared in court under false names, stole the identities of dead children, and spied on the grieving families of black people killed in police custody. These sensational revelations have captured extensive media attention, but much of the scandals coverage has decontextualized the operations, neglecting their political aims and impacts. Undercover policing, in fact, is just the sharp edge of an entire armory of political policing."
A document circulated by the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council makes the case for "renewable retention warrants", which are "intended to ensure the law enforcement needs to have certain data categories being retained by the electronic service providers and provide additional safeguard that the data retention regime would comply with the strict necessity principle as prescribed by the ECJ [Court of Justice of the EU]."
"The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection is seeking tenders for new facial matching software to support up to 20,000 registrations a week for the public services card and to transfer up to four million facial biometric records of Irish residents to a new database.
The department expects the contract value to be about 700,000, excluding VAT.
The card project has cost about 60 million to date and more than three million cards have been issued.
The public services card and its associated databases have been the subject of an investigation by the Data Protection Commissioner amid concerns about privacy and the legal basis on which it was built."
And see: DPC investigation into Public Services Card (Digital Rights Ireland, link): "We welcome the Data Protection Commissioners decision to extend her investigation into the Public Services Card. The Commissioners investigation is unprecedented in the Irish public sector. The card is essentially a national identity card. The database that lies behind it is an unofficial national population register in all but name. There is no apparent legal basis for a national population register, and no obvious requirement for it."
"Researchers opposed to the EUs decision to start funding military research are stepping up their pressure on Brussels with a fresh call for the new defence research programme to be axed.
A petition organised jointly by civil society groups in Belgium, the UK, Italy and Germany demanding the EU restrict its research vision to tackling the causes of conflicts now has more than 400 signatories.
The EU, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012, should instead fund more innovative and courageous research which helps to tackle the root causes of conflict or contributes to the peaceful resolution of conflict, the petition says."
Council discussing its negotiating position - how dodgy deals are done - European Parliament to agree the procedure at the expense of the principle of collecting facial images?
The Presidency has the impression that the EP might agree to keeping Article 10 on 'implementing acts' basically as it stands - without prejudice to the time-limits, which still have to be discussed - on condition that the use of facial images be decided in accordance with the procedure for 'delegated acts' as proposed by EP in its Article 34a (AM 102). PRES understands the sensitivity of EP towards the use of facial images and considers that such a deal, if proposed, would be reasonable."
 EUROJUST: Proposal of the European Parliament and of the Council for a Regulation on the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust) (LIMITE doc no: 7928-18, 331 pages, pdf): 4-column trilogue document with colour coding.
"In the fourth column, the texts as provisionally agreed during the technical trilogues are marked by green. Issues that were also discussed, but on which no (full) provisional agreement was reached yet, are marked by yellow."
And see: Draft consolidated text (7526-18, pdf) Also colour coded.
"approve the final compromise texts, as set out in Annex I and II to this note, as well as the draft declaration regarding the Schengen Associated Countries, as set out in Annex III to this note."
In the Member States bound by the Returns Directive, the finding that the Charter applies to prevent such removal simplifies the process of guaranteeing the non-removal of medical cases. Furthermore, it should be recalled that the case law on that Directive guarantees health care and medical assistance.
Overall, then, todays judgment has gone some way to ensuring greater protection, where necessary, for the most vulnerable migrants: torture victims and the terminally ill."
"Neville Lawrence and other victims of the spycops delivered a letter to Amber Rudd today, on behalf of non-State core participants in the Undercover Policing Inquiry.
The letter asks for the Home Secretary to intervene, and ensure that this Inquiry succeeds in its mission: to uncover the truth about undercover policing, and provide answers to those targeted by these covert, political policing units."
"The standard operating procedure of the May government is to outsource immigration enforcement to the public, embedding borders in all sorts of different aspects of our day-to-day life. One of the chief ways it does this is through the 'right-to-rent' scheme, which is a far more dangerous development than it sounds. Now we finally have an independent assessment of the operation, via David Bolt, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration."
"AN outcry has followed moves by Spanish police to force Barcelona football fans to remove yellow tops worn in support of Catalan political prisoners at a cup final on Saturday.
Some had placards and Estelada flags confiscated and many were photographed by security forces during the high-profile Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Sevilla in Madrid.
Police targeted pro-Catalonia fans outside Atletico Madrids Wanda Metropolitano Stadium.
Videos posted later on social media showed yellow scarves and banners saying Freedom for Political Prisoners being torn from the hands of pro-Catalan supporters."
"Today, on the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners, more than 150 European trade unions, political parties, human rights organizations and faith groups from over 16 European countries issued a call urging the EU to uphold its legal responsibilities and exclude Israeli military companies from EU Framework Programs.
This call  accompanied by an explainer video - comes at a time when at least 35 unarmed Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli snipers during three weeks of protests at Gazas border with Israel.
The signatories stress that European taxpayers money is being channeled to military companies, among them many Israeli corporations, under the disguise of research and a promise that the technologies and techniques developed will be used solely for civilian purposes."
"Today begins the trial of the Moria 35, which will determine the fate of 35 individuals arrested following a protest outside the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in Moria Refugee Camp on 18 July 2017. The stakes are high in this inherently political trial. The 35 face criminal charges for which they may receive 10 years in prison and probable deportation if found guilty.
"ENDING the Troubles in Northern Ireland stopped large scale violence, but lower level activity has lingered. Earlier this month, loyalists renewed their opposition to criminality. Now Paul Nolan reports how killings didn't entirely stop after the Belfast agreement in 1998, while few perpetrators have ever been convicted.
...In all, by April this year, a total of 158 people have died in what the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) refer to as security-related killings in the period since the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement was signed in April 1998. The ruthlessness with which Ciaran Cummings was dispatched has been more than matched by the dissident republicans. Political violence has been an ever-present reality in what is called, without irony, the post-conflict period in Northern Ireland. "
"Millions of facial images of innocent people cannot be deleted because IT failings make it too expensive, a Government minister has claimed.
The work would have to be done manually by local police forces, making the costs difficult to justify, a House of Commons committee investigating the controversy has been told.
The Home Office also admitted it does not hold the data on how many people have successfully asked for their mugshots to be deleted  amid suspicions that the figure is very low.
The admissions have come despite a High Court ruling six years ago that the mass retention of facial images, including of people charged with no offence, is illegal."
"Unlike any other EU country, Bulgaria created a ministry responsible for its EU presidency. It is led by Lilyana Pavlova, known for her devotion to Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and for her ability to find shortcuts when others fail.
The research was presented this week by the Access to Information Program, an authoritative NGO that has been doing such evaluations for nearly ten years.
The most opaque Bulgarian ministry is Pavlovas, the study finds. Despite the promises for transparency at the time of its launching, the institutions website lacks basic features. It has not even published a list of the services provided by the institution, nor the internal rules for those services. The laws and regulations that are relevant to the work of the ministry are not mentioned. There is no information about the registers and databases maintained by the institution. There is no mandatory electronic form for submitting applications. Additionally, the site is not compliant so that it can be used by visually impaired people."
"In addition to forcing undocumented people into exploitation and destitution, the effects of the hostile environment reverberate well beyond its stated targets. By effectively outsourcing immigration control to the public and private sectors, the Government has given a green light to racism and discrimination in all areas of life, by fuelling suspicion of anyone who does not appear sufficiently British.
And ultimately, we increasingly live in a society in which we are all conditioned to show ID and have our interactions with the State logged, as the Governments obsession with monitoring and policing migrants demands surveillance of every one of us.
The Governments attempt to create a hostile environment is dependent on the willing participation of people across society  but that will also be its downfall. Written by nine human rights groups, A Guide to the Hostile Environment explains the Governments toxic vision and the action we can all take to dismantle it."
An EU official described the ruling as a big worry."
"Asylum seekers will be forced to hand over their mobile phones and up to 840 euros ($1,040) in cash to the authorities, under measures approved by the Austrian cabinet on Wednesday.
"European states should ensure that persons deprived of their liberty have access to effective complaints mechanisms in prisons, police stations, immigration detention centres, psychiatric institutions and other places of detention.
This is a fundamental safeguard against torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, warns the Council of Europe's anti-torture committee (CPT) in its annual report, published today."
"A new and important report by Warwick University investigates counterterrorism in the NHS, revealing how lines are blurred between safeguarding and surveillance, security risk and social care and mental health and radicalisation."
"The shameful treatment of elderly Commonwealth citizens treated as illegal immigrants was brought to public attention by the Guardians report in March on the refusal of NHS cancer treatment to 63-year-old Londoner Albert Thompson. "
"The EU needs more legal safeguards to prevent massive privacy breaches like the current scandal over Facebook and British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, MEPs from different political parties argued on Wednesday (18 April).
Even the blocs new data protection law known as the GDPR will not be enough to stop major data abuse, a chorus of legislators insisted at the European Parliaments plenary session in Strasbourg.
The GDPR, which will take effect on 25 May, has received an unexpected surge of praise since news broke last month that more than 80 million Facebook users data was analysed without their consent by Cambridge Analytica."
"In a small venue in southern Madrid, Pablo Hasél is about to perform what could be one of his last shows before going to prison. The Catalan rapper will spend two years and one day in jail for glorifying terrorism and insulting the Crown and state institutions in one of his songs and a series of tweets.
Fellow members of that generation include Josep Valtònyc, a 24-year-old from Mallorca, who was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy. In December, 12 members of the group Insurgencia each received two-year terms for glorifying terrorism in a song. Also last year, César Strawberry, the lead singer of the metal-rap band Def con Dos, was given a one-year suspended sentence for tweeting a series of jokes about terrorist attacks and the Spanish king."
"The ETIAS should provide a travel authorisation for third country nationals exempt from the visa requirement enabling to determine whether their presence on the territory of the Member States does not pose or will not pose a security, illegal immigration or a high epidemic risk. A travel authorisation therefore constitutes a decision indicating that there are no factual indications or reasonable grounds to consider that the presence of a person on the territory of the Member States poses such risks. As such a travel authorisation is in its nature distinct from a visa as it does not require more information or place a heavier burden on applicants than a visa does. Holding a valid travel authorisation should be a new entry condition for the territory of the Member States, however mere possession of a travel authorisation should not confer an automatic right of entry."
"A police officer and a retired police inspector have won their appeal against a misconduct ruling over the death of a man who was Tasered.
Adrian McDonald, 34, died in Newcastle-under-Lyme in 2014 after he complained of breathing difficulties.
Sgt Jason Bromley and Insp Richard Bills, of Staffordshire Police, were found to have failed in their duty of care at a hearing in September.
But their appeal has been upheld by an independent tribunal."
"This is the fourteenth Progress Report on the progress made towards building an effective and genuine Security Union and covers developments under two main pillars: tackling terrorism and organised crime and the means that support them; and strengthening our defences and building resilience against those threats."
"Theresa May was two years into her job as home secretary when she made her strategy explicit, telling the Telegraph in 2012 her aim was to create here in Britain a really hostile environment for illegal migration.
The outcry over the treatment of the Windrush generation of migrants in Britain legally, but sometimes without the paperwork to prove it, has exposed the scale of that strategy.
The hostile environment created by new legislation and regulation has meant migrants do not face border officials only when they enter the country for the first time, but as a constant part of daily life. They must prove their immigration status whenever they try to rent a property, open a bank account or access the health services. Landlords and employers become immigration enforcers  or risk hefty fines."
"A serving British soldier and white supremacist who kept a photo of himself giving a Nazi-style salute has been cleared of a terrorism offence.
Corporal Mikko Vehvilainen, who collected a host of legally-held weaponry, pleaded guilty to having a banned canister of CS gas, which he kept in the drawer of a home he was renovating.
He had a photograph at the property in Llansilin, Powys, Wales, which showed him giving a Nazi-type salute at a memorial to his native Finlands independence, in 1917.
A Birmingham Crown Court jury cleared him on Thursday of possession of a terrorism document  the Anders Breivik manifesto  and two counts of stirring up racial hatred relating to forum posts on a white nationalist website."
no violation of Articles 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) and 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The case concerned Mr Pirozzis detention by the Belgian authorities and his surrender to the Italian authorities under a European arrest warrant (EAW) with a view to enforcing a criminal conviction imposing 14 years imprisonment for drug trafficking."
"The Hungarian government had been allocating a disproportionately large part of EU money available for the 2014-2020 funding period before the national elections which took place on 8 April 2018: already 90 percent of the total EU funds was awarded by the end of 2017. Just within one month (December 2017), the Hungarian government allocated HUF 1660 billion (5.36 billion) of EU money, i.e. one-fifth of the total sum foreseen for the seven-year period. This way the Hungarian government has created the impression among the public that its economic policies are extremely successful. The voters did not realise that the lavish disbursement of EU money temporarily hides the fact that this enormous amount of taxpayers money is used in a very inefficient way, which will certainly have grave consequences in the coming years."
EU: Commission's "e-evidence" proposals: "maximising risks for fundamental rights violations"
New proposals from the European Commission to make cross-border access to electronic data by police and judicial authorities "easier and faster" have been described as "a new legal shortcut to bypass existing measures, maximising risks for fundamental rights violations," by the civil society organisation European Digital Rights (EDRi), of which Statewatch is a member.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has today announced that they have directed gross misconduct charges for five officers involved in the death of Sean Rigg. Also today, an unprecedented second attempt by PC Andrew Birks to challenge a decision to block his resignation was successful, after the High Court ordered the Met Commissioner to reconsider a decision made in July 2017 to continue Birks suspension, pending decisions on disciplinary action.
The Council of Europe's recently-published annual prison statistics reports cover the year 2016 and show an increase from 2015 in the prison population rate (the number of prisoners per 100,000 of a country's population), the average length of imprisonment, the number of entries into penal institutions and the proportion of prisoners serving sentences for theft.
"Employees who blow the whistle on corporate tax avoidance or cheating on product standards would be entitled to special legal status under a draft EU law.
The European commission will next week propose legislation that intends to protect whistleblowers. Recent scandals have exposed the limited help available for people seeking to expose corporate behaviour in the public interest.
The law would give whistleblowers protected status, including the right to legal aid and possible financial support. Companies would be banned from firing or demoting whistleblowers and face dissuasive penalties for seeking to block employees seeking to uncover wrongdoing."
"In just two years, the government has deliberately ignored key rulings of the countrys Constitutional Tribunal; added judges to make the Constitutional Tribunal more favorable to the government; forced almost half the Supreme Court judges to retire; and allowed the justice minister discretion to dismiss heads of ordinary courts.
Pressure from the European Commission has prompted Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki to hint at a possible compromise, but these fall woefully short: publishing two-year-old Constitutional Tribunal rulings  while at the same time recognizing they wont be implemented; slightly adjusting the retirement age of Supreme Courts judges  but effectively confirming the purge of a large number of them; and, finally, requiring the justice minister to consult with other judges before dismissing ordinary court presidents  while at least 130 judges (out of 300) have already been fired since August 2017. At the same time, the government confirmed it intends to keep the essence of the damaging reforms it has already implemented.
The reforms do nothing to address the commissions concerns so shouldnt stop the EU from moving forward with its action under Article 7. But the commission has a track record of accepting cosmetic changes as progress  Hungary being a good example.
Doing so here would be a profound mistake."
"The British government has been ordered to hand over a top secret Metropolitan Police file that recommended charges against a senior MI6 officer for his role in the alleged illegal rendition and torture of opponents of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The High Court in London made the order on Thursday after lawyers for torture victims, including Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj and his wife Fatima Boudchar, challenged a decision not to release a 400-page report which called for Sir Mark Allen of MI6 to be charged with misconduct in private office.
Government lawyers have been resisting its release in the ongoing legal claim by Belhaj and his wife who claim there were unlawfully rendered from Thailand to Libya in March 2004."
"After meeting with the European Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King in Zagreb on Friday, Interior Minister Davor Boinovic said that Croatia would meet the technical criteria to enter the Schengen Area by the end of this year.
Boinovic discussed several security topics with King, including border surveillance and the implementation of the European directive on the use of passenger name record (PNR) data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime.
Boinovic expects that the motion in second reading, which was adopted by the government on Thursday, would be passed by parliament in a week or so. He assessed the directive as important in the joint fight against terrorism, organised crime, money laundering and access to substances for home-made explosive devices."
"I must admit that I was somewhat skeptical about predictions concerning the size of the demonstration planned for yesterday. In the past, there were so many calls for demonstrations that turned out to be small or medium-size gatherings of a few thousand. There was a lot of moaning about the Hungarian peoples inability or unwillingness to stand up for their rights. How often did we hear that Hungarians are sheep-like creatures who are ready to suffer any abuse as long as their leaders appeal to their nationalistic instincts? But the fact is that a fortuitous combination of factors has converged that offers an opportunity to change history. It might have taken Hungarians eight years and a third sweeping victory by Fidesz, but there are signs that the opposition will gain strength in the next months and years."
"Italy granted citizenship to over 200,000 people in 2016, more than any other country in the European Union.
The 201,600 people who became Italian accounted for a fifth of nearly a million new EU citizens that year, according to the latest figures from European statistics office Eurostat.
Italy approved some 23,600 more citizenship requests compared to 2015, an increase of 13 percent. The new passports went notably to people originally from Albania (18.3 percent of the total), Morocco (17.5 percent) and Romania (6.4 percent)."
In an opinion published today the European Data Protection Supervisor warns that the European Commission's proposals to interconnect the EU's large-scale biometric databases would "change the way in which fundamental legal principles in this area have traditionally been interpreted," and calls for a "wider debate on the future of information exchange in the EU, the governance of interoperable databases and the safeguarding of fundamental rights."
"In the fourth column, the texts as provisionally agreed during the technical trilogues are marked by green. Issues that were also discussed, but on which no (full) provisional agreement was reached yet, are marked by yellow.
"Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed""
"MEPs are demanding the launch of an infringement procedure against Hungary for breaching core EU values, just days after Prime Minister Viktor Orbáns sweeping election success.
The demand is made in a draft report by the European Parliaments Civil Liberties Committee, published on Thursday (12 April), which lists 12 breaches. These include the weakening of the Constitutional Court and the judiciary, corruption, restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and intimidation of the media, non-governmental organizations and research institutions.
It also expresses concerns over violations of fundamental rights of refugees and minorities."
"Employees of state TV network describe how channels pumped out pro-government messaging ahead of Victor Orbáns election victory this week."
"Croatian lawmakers have backed a treaty safeguarding women and girls in the face of right-wing and Catholic opposition. Critics of the Istanbul Convention argue that it will indirectly legalize gay marriage."
"Fourteen local police forces around Belgium have begun a one-year trial of Tasers, under a pilot project launched by interior minister Jan Jambon.
The year-long experiment could lead to Tasers being rolled out nationally. The weapon allows an officer to deliver an electric shock intended to disable someone resisting arrest. However, use of the weapons in other countries has led to fatalities.
Police union SLFP raised concerns about the introduction of Tasers last year, threatening to strike over the issue. The union said the use of such weapons is not covered by any legislation in Belgium - leaving the individual officer responsible alone for their actions.
Police in Charleroi refused to take part in the tests, wanting more legal clarity. "No risk analysis was put forward," said a Charleroi police spokesman. "We wanted to know what were the risks involved, and the cases in which we should not use it.""
Since 9 April some 2,500 police officers have been engaged in the destruction of a ten-year old land occupation near Nantes known as the ZAD, which was originally established in 2008 to try to prevent the construction of an airport. Police have fired stun grenades and tear gas and have been accompanied by bulldozers that have razed the houses and other buildings constructed on the site. Residents of the land and supporters from further afield have attempted to stop the police operation with barricades and by throwing various projectiles including molotov cocktails.
"There are numerous ways that Parliament can engage in counter-terrorism review. Parliamentary committees, such as the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Home Affairs Select Committee, and the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, can conduct inquiries into counter-terrorism policies and practices and produce reports on various features of the UKs anti-terrorism laws. MPs and Lords can ask questions of Government Ministers in Parliament, requesting information on specific aspects of counter-terrorism. Parliament scrutinises new anti-terrorism legislation. One additional route of parliamentary counter-terrorism review is the Sunset Clause.
Sunset clauses offer Parliament a rare opportunity to engage in counter-terrorism review  one that is has to date not made significant use of. As part of this project we will be evaluating Parliaments participation in counter-terrorism review, with a view to proposing reforms that will ensure that state counter-terrorism practices  including its anti-terrorism legislation  are effectively held to account."
"As tension over Syria builds up, two U.S. spy planes have landed at Heraklion airport in Crete.
The MC-12S EMARSS and MC-12W Liberty planes have been used in recent missions over Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Enhanced Medium Altitude Reconnaissance and Surveillance System (EMARSS-S) has a suite of signal-snooping gear to track and listen in on enemy communications, as well as the ability to record full-motion video during the day or at night."
GERMANY: NOTHING TO HIDE documentary examines "passive public acceptance of massive corporate and governmental incursions into individual and group privacy and rights"
"NOTHING TO HIDE is an independent documentary dealing with surveillance and its acceptance by the general public through the I have nothing to hide argument. The documentary was produced and directed by a pair of Berlin-based journalists, Mihaela Gladovic and Marc Meillassoux. It was crowdfunded by over 400 backers.
NOTHING TO HIDE questions the growing, puzzling and passive public acceptance of massive corporate and governmental incursions into individual and group privacy and rights."
"The government is planning to make changes to a new law giving greater phone and internet tapping powers to the Dutch security services following last months no vote in a referendum.
The amendments include a commitment to state explicitly that tapping cable communications should be as closely targeted as possible and that more guarantees should be included when information is exchanged with foreign security services, Dutch media report on Friday.
The Volkskrant says the cabinet is prepared to make six concessions to the no campaign, including making information gleaned from doctors and journalists more secure."
"The Catholic church in Bavaria is demanding answers after it emerged that West German intelligence installed a secret listening post in Munich cathedral during the Cold War.
The twin towers of the Frauenkirche cathedral, with their distinctive domed tops, have long been a symbol of Germanys third city.
But a few days ago it emerged that, unknown even to the church authorities, the north tower also contains a secret radio antenna and listening post.
The equipment was installed by West Germanys BND intelligence service to monitor suspected spies and foreign diplomats during the Cold War, according to a report in Spiegel magazine."
In 2018, Nations in Transit registered the most score declines in the projects 23-year history: 19 of the 29 countries had declines in their overall Democracy Scores. For the second year in a row, there are more Consolidated Authoritarian Regimes than Consolidated Democracies.
Poland recorded the largest category declines and the second-largest Democracy Score decline in the history of the report. The governments takeover of the judicial system, politicization of public media, smear campaigns against nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and violations of ordinary parliamentary procedure have resulted in a dramatic decline in the quality of Polish democracy.
Hungary has registered the largest cumulative decline in Nations in Transit history, after its score has fallen for 10 consecutive years.
Serbias score declined for the fourth straight year, threatening its status as a Semi-Consolidated Democracy. The consolidation of power under President Aleksandar Vucic continues.
"Home Secretary Amber Rudd is set to announce £9m to boost the fight against paedophiles, drugs and arms dealers operating in clandestine corners of the internet.
Ms Rudd will use a speech to say increasing crime being carried out on the dark web means law enforcement agencies need additional capacity to tackle the problem.
She will also set out some new funds for fighting illegal online activity at community level, which will see police forces set up cybercrime units in local areas."
"WASHINGTON ? As the United States, Russia and China continue to push forward in their development of unmanned autonomous weapon systems, questions surrounding how these new weapons will be governed and regulated are becoming more salient.
This week, parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) will be meeting at the Hague to discuss the definition of meaningful human control, a term that is central to the ongoing regulation discussion."
"The 8 April parliamentary elections were characterized by a pervasive overlap between state and ruling party resources, undermining contestants ability to compete on an equal basis. Voters had a wide range of political options but intimidating and xenophobic rhetoric, media bias and opaque campaign financing constricted the space for genuine political debate, hindering voters ability to make a fully-informed choice. The technical administration of the elections was professional and transparent.
Fundamental rights and freedoms were respected overall, but exercised in an adverse climate. Access to information as well as the freedoms of the media and association have been restricted, including by recent legal changes. While the electoral legal framework forms an adequate basis for democratic elections, recent amendments were a missed opportunity to hold inclusive consultations and address prior ODIHR recommendations."
By 25 votes to five against the Civil Liberties Committee call for a new European Values Instrument to support civil society organisations which are active at local and national level in promoting EU fundamental values.
Civil society organisations (CSOs) are facing difficulties to secure enough funds to develop and perform their activities independently and effectively, Civil Liberties MEPs say on Monday."
The European Commission and other EU bodies do not only adopt opinions and recommendations, but also other documents which can be called soft law, such as guidelines, communications, codes of conduct, notices, inter-institutional agreements, conclusions, statements, resolutions,5 as well as working documents/non papers and best practices. These instruments are often used but they do not have a basis in the Treaties."
"Companies operating in the EU that are currently hiding serious data breaches similar to those that rocked Facebook last month better disclose those before 25 May, or be prepared to pay serious fines.
On that date, the EU's new general data protection regulation (GDPR) will come into force. The new EU bill will require that companies that process personal data inform the relevant data protection authority in case of a data breach."
"Delegations will find in annex a proposal for the Practical Advisor for Law Enforcement Information Exchange.
The Practical Advisor aims to provide the Member States' law enforcement officers with brief practical information. It is presented in a user-friendly and structured way to support everyday work and to be used for training purposes or for instant consultation.
With regard to this, the Presidency invites the Member States to discuss the document and to share their opinion about the appropriate place of the Practical Advisor - as an Annex to the Manual on Law Enforcement Information Exchange, as a standalone document, etc."
Includes an overview of existing channels for international law enforcement cooperation and "Recommended DOs and DON'Ts" on information exchange.
"TWENTY years on from the signing of the Good Friday Agreement over one third of killings carried out in Northern Ireland during the Troubles are still being investigated by police, The Detail can reveal.
There were over 3,200 homicides in Northern Ireland from January 1969 to the signing of the agreement on April 10 1998, while hundreds more people were killed elsewhere in violence linked to the conflict.
New figures obtained by The Detail show that 1,186 of the Northern Ireland deaths are still part of the caseload of the Legacy Investigation Branch (LIB) of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). The figures represent an increase on numbers reported last year. "
"The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recently rejected a request by Ireland to revise its judgment in the 1978 Ireland v. The United Kingdom case, where the Court found that the use by the then U.K. government of five techniques of interrogation on fourteen individuals amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), but did not rise to the level of torture. In the recent revision request Ireland asked the ECtHR to revise the original judgment, based on evidence that has recently become available, and to find that the five techniques did amount to torture.
The Court rejected Irelands request, a decision that was met with disappointment by human rights advocates. Grainne Teggart, Amnesty Internationals Northern Ireland campaigns manager remarked that this was a very disappointing outcome, for the men and their families and argued that the Court missed a vital opportunity to put right a historic wrong. Without taking away from the anguish of the fourteen individuals who suffered and continue to suffer as a result of being subjected to the harsh interrogations, it is necessary to understand the reasoning behind the Courts decision and challenge the notion that it was a denial of justice."
"It is sometimes cases on obscure administrative processes that become landmark judgments in the ever constant building of our democratic legal systems. In the US Marbury v. Madison was a case that at the time attracted little attention as the subject matter related to respect of procedures in judicial appointments. This notwithstanding it came to be the legal milestone of constitutional review in the US legal system.
In the European Union one of these cases was decided on 22 March: Emilio De Capitani v. Parliament. As it will be outlined below, it is a technical case that goes to the heart of the procedure of one of the fundamental institutions in a democracy: Parliament."
"Up to 10,000 people have taken part in a protest in Dublin demanding action to end the housing crisis.
Organised by the National Homeless and Housing Coalition, a central aim of the protest is to get the Government to declare an emergency.
Marchers gathered at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square before marching down O'Connell Street and on to the Customs House for a rally.
They pointed to the latest figures showing nearly 10,000 people are in emergency accommodation."
German authorities use a number of databases that collect data on political activists, even if they hadn't been sentenced or tried. Names are stored if people have had their identity checked, or if they have registered a demonstration under their name. Many are recorded under false designations. Such entries have raised concerns around them being used for further repression, including the revocation of journalists accreditation. Discriminatory and stigmatising labels have also been applied to people whose data is held by the police.
"the Spanish Government has repeatedly expressed interest in obtaining joint control of Gibraltars airport which is located on the isthmus that joins the Rock to the Spanish mainland. The Spanish Government regards the isthmus as not being covered by the Treaty of Utrecht by which the Rock was ceded to the British Crown in 1713.
There is concern that if the UK and Spain are unable to arrive at a bilateral agreement by the autumn of 2018, this could hold up the conclusion of the overall Withdrawal Agreement. The Chairman of the House of Lords Select Committee on the EU wrote to the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, David Davis MP, on 28 March 2018 expressing concerns about the UK-Spain bilateral discussions and seeking reassurance that Gibraltar would be fully covered by the transitional arrangements for UK exit."
"The internet is at risk of becoming fragmented if online databases that show who owns websites are shut down after the EUs new data protection law takes effect next month, the head of internet domain organisation ICANN has warned."
"It is hard to argue that you cannot trust the government when the government isnt really all that bad. This is the problem facing the small but growing number of Swedes anxious about their countrys rush to embrace a cash-free society.
Most consumers already say they manage without cash altogether, while shops and cafes increasingly refuse to accept notes and coins because of the costs and risk involved. Until recently, however, it has been hard for critics to find a hearing.
The Swedish government is a rather nice one, we have been lucky enough to have mostly nice ones for the past 100 years, says Christian Engström, a former MEP for the Pirate Party and an early opponent of the cashless economy.
There are signs this might be changing. In February, the head of Swedens central bank warned that Sweden could soon face a situation where all payments were controlled by private sector banks. "
"Human rights and counter-terrorism are mutually reinforcing and complementary. In practice, the promotion and protection of human rights has all too often been a mere afterthought to counter-terrorism regulation within the UN architecture. This revision of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy offers a meaningful (if highly contested) political space in which translation of lofty and abstract human rights values could be mainstreamed into global policies and practices. While human rights constitute an independent pillar of the GCTS, as well as a cross-cutting imperative in the other pillars of the strategy, the objective of mainstreaming human rights protection throughout the UN counter-terrorism architecture is a long way from being fulfilled. This review of the GCTS provides an important moment to address the prominence and support given to Pillar IV in the work of the relevant UN entities, and ensures that the commitments made to human rights protection under pillars I and III are fully translated in the practice of the architecture as a whole, and benchmarked for delivery and functionality."
"The first draft of the Agreement  published by the UK and EU last week  gives legal form to many of the hot topics of Brexit, from the rights of EU nationals living here, to how much money the UK owes the EU.
The Withdrawal Agreement also covers areas like justice, security and data transfers, where the UK and EU wish to continue cooperation. Negotiations have already begun on standalone treaties in these areas, which could be concluded as early as next year.
The potential content of these treaties raises serious concerns for fundamental rights. Taking justice and security as an example, the UK opted out of a raft of rights protections relating to cross-border extraditions and investigations. These gaps in protection were tolerated while the UK remained a member of the EU  arguably because laws like the Charter of Fundamental Rights provided a backstop  but with the Charters future in the UK uncertain, its vital that any future treaty explicitly protects rights weve opted out of in the past."
Thousands EU citizens and their family members living in the UK under EU law are at risk of falling through the cracks, with their rights of future residence in question after Brexit, Eurochildren researchers say.
Core participants in the UK's undercover policing inquiry have aired serious concerns over the ongoing complete anonymity afforded to former undercover police officers by the inquiry's chair, Sir John Mitting, which is preventing them from finding out the truth of what happened to them.
The Macedonian government has expressed "sincere apologies and unreserved regrets" for its role in the abduction and torture of German citizen Khaled el-Masri as part of the CIA's "rendition" programme.
"Journalists have been asking me whether the revulsion against the abuse of Facebook data could be a turning point for the campaign to recover privacy. That could happen, if the public makes its campaign broader and deeper.
The surveillance imposed on us today far exceeds that of the Soviet Union. For freedom and democracys sake, we need to eliminate most of it. There are so many ways to use data to hurt people that the only safe database is the one that was never collected. Thus, instead of the EUs approach of mainly regulating how personal data may be used (in its General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR), I propose a law to stop systems from collecting personal data."
"President Trump has signed the CLOUD Act, requiring internet companies to hand over personal data to U.S. law enforcement agencies, no matter where that data is stored. The Act also allows the executive branch to create agreements with foreign countries to provide direct access to personal data stored in the United States."
"Italy summoned the French ambassador for consultations on Saturday after armed French border patrol agents used an Italian train station to force a Nigerian train passenger to provide a urine sample for a drug test."
In its decision in the case of Krombach v. France (application no. 67521/14) the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously declared the application inadmissible. The decision is final.
The case concerned Mr Krombachs criminal conviction in France for events in respect of which he submitted that he had previously been acquitted in Germany. The facts concerned the circumstances surrounding the death of Kalinka Bamberski in 1982 at Mr Krombachs home in Germany. The case raised the question of the right not to be tried or punished twice (ne bis in idem).
"FOR those engaged in the negotiations leading up to the Good Friday Agreement, the future of policing was a central, but seemingly intractable problem.
As a source of debate, controversy and conflict for many years, the issue of a fair, representative and impartial police service went to the very heart of the conflict transformation endeavour.
Now 20 years post Good Friday, have we seen the new beginning to policing which was promised? Lets start with some basics. There is a new name - the Police Service of Northern Ireland and a new crest representing the symbols of the past and the present. Catholics now make up 31.5% of the total number of officers (although only around 19% of police staff), and there is a new, representative Policing Board to hold the Chief Constable to account.
Indeed, the PSNI are the most accountable police service in the European Union and the Policing Board is the most powerful independent policing authority. In general, public satisfaction in policing is high - with around three quarters of those recently surveyed believing the police were doing a good job. "
Privacy International have today published a new report examining technology UK police forces are secretly deploying, which enables them to download all of the content and data from people's phones. 'Digital Stop and search: how the UK police can secretly download everything from your mobile phone' is based on Freedom of Information requests to 47 police forces across the UK about their use of such 'mobile phone extraction' technologies.
The Independent Advisory Group on the Use of Biometric Data in Scotland has published its final report examining the retention of custody images by Police Scotland and "the use and retention of biometric data more generally in policing to seek to establish an ethical and human rights based framework".
"The EU will put migration and security at the heart of its agenda in talks on a successor to the Cotonou Agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific nations (ACP), a leading EU official said on Monday (26 March).
The EUs new partnership with Africa must do more with migration [policy]. We must partner with Africa to fight trafficking and migrant smuggling, said Koen Vervaeke, managing director for Africa at the European External Action Service (EEAS) at the Chatham House think-tank in London.
Talks between the EU and ACP community will begin later this year on a successor to the Cotonou agreement, the EUs 20-year Partnership Agreement with the 78 nations, which was signed in Cotonou, Benin, in 2000.
The new agreement will also address growing inward migration to African countries."
"The polices decision to launch a surveillance operation against a woman whose brother had been unlawfully killed in a police station was likely to have been influenced partly by racial discrimination, a leaked report by a watchdog concluded.
Janet Alder and her barrister were put under surveillance by police during the inquest into the death of her brother, Christopher. The surveillance team followed them to a hotel and car park and attempted to eavesdrop on their private conversations.
An investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), now called the Independent Office for Police Conduct, found there was evidence to support the conclusion that discrimination and bias is likely to have been a factor when police initiated the surveillance."

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