Human Rights Panel Criticizes Blacklisting Methods

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/12/AR2007111200707.html

Human Rights Panel Criticizes Blacklisting Methods

By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 12, 2007; 12:50 PM

PARIS, Nov. 12 -- The methods used to blacklist terrorist suspects by the United Nations and European Union are "totally arbitrary" and "violate the fundamental principles of human rights and rule of law," a European human rights panel said Monday.

The Council of Europe's legal committee urged an international overhaul of regulations for blacklisting individuals and groups to provide them access to evidence, rights to a fair trial or impartial review within a reasonable time, and compensation for wrongful designation as a terrorist.

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Approximately 370 individuals and 60 organizations worldwide have been blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council or the European Union, the investigation into blacklisting found. They have had their finances frozen, have been forbidden to travel and have had little recourse for getting de-listed, according to Dick Marty, the Swiss parliamentarian who has led the investigations.

"The person or group concerned is usually neither informed of the request, nor given the possibility to be heard, nor even necessarily informed about the decision taken -- until he or she first attempts to cross a border or use a bank account," Marty wrote in his account for the committee.

"A serial killer in Europe has a lot more rights," Marty said at a news conference in Paris after the parliamentary committee met in the French city of Strasbourg.

The resolution approved by the Legal Affairs Committee is scheduled to be heard by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in January. The council's actions serve as recommendations to members of the European Union.