Belmarsh, control orders, deportation and extradition

Just ten days ago, I drafted a letter for readers to send to their MPs, asking for their opinions on four particular topics: the closure of Guantánamo and the return to the UK of British resident Shaker Aamer; the use of secret evidence in UK courts; the continued existence of control orders for British and [...]

Some horrors may await us on the economic front when George Osborne, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, finishes sharpening his scythe, but for those of us who care about human rights and civil liberties, and who have been aghast for the last 13 years at the Labour government’s paranoid, cruel and chaotic anti-terror legislation, [...]

For the Guardian’s Comment is free, “An uncivilized society” is an article I wrote analyzing the new coalition government’s first major test of its commitment to long-established legal principles, and to Britain’s human rights obligations. As I also explained in a previous article, these were tested on Monday when, in the Special Immigration Appeals Commissions [...]

Today, the new coalition government faces its first major test regarding the confusing legacy of anti-terror laws inherited from the Labour government, after Mr. Justice Mitting, the judge in the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), the body charged with handling terror cases involving deportation, refused to allow the government to deport two Pakistani students, despite [...]

Over the last few months of the Labour government, at screenings of the new documentary film, “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo,”  former prisoner Omar Deghayes and myself handed out copies of a letter to foreign secretary David Miliband requesting the return from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, and [...]

As a follow-up to my recent article, “98 MPs Who Supported Human Rights While Countering Terrorism,” in which I presented a list of current MPs who had supported the return from Guantánamo of Shaker Aamer, the last British resident in the prison, had opposed the use of secret evidence in UK courts, and/or had voted [...]

Just before the election, I created a list of 149 MPs (out of 650 in total), who had signed up to two important Early Day Motions over the previous 12 months. The first opposed the use of secret evidence in UK courts, particularly in the cases of terror suspects (both British and foreign nationals), where [...]

Today, the UK adapts to new political realities — a Tory Prime Minister, for the first time since 1997, a unique coalition between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, and a Labour party, leaderless and in opposition, having apparently blown its opportunity to forge a fragile coalition with the Lib Dems through ferocious opposition to [...]

With 649 out of 650 results declared in the 2010 General Election, it is now confirmed that no party has an outright majority. The Tories won 306 seats (20 short of a majority), Labour won 258, the Liberal Democrats won 57 and other parties won 28. For those who hoped that electoral reform would be [...]

For anyone wondering how to vote in the General Election today, who may have noticed the resounding silence on the election trail regarding Britain’s commitment to human rights since the 9/11 attacks, I’ve compiled the following list of 149 MPs (out of 650 in total), who have signed up to two important Early Day Motions [...]