Do You Think United Nations Should Define Human Rights of Terrorists?
Do You Think United Nations Should Define Human Rights of Terrorists?
DO YOU THINK UNITED NATIONS SHOULD DEFINE HUMAN RIGHTS OF TERRORISTS?
Terrorists are people who practce terrorism and according to Wikipedia, terrorism is the use of internatonally indiscriminate violence as a means to create terror among masses of people; or fear to achieve a religious or politcal aim. Under internatonal law, there is no established defniton of terrorism, which makes the fght against terrorism somewhat difcult and makes it somewhat unclear who can be called a terrorist. However, everyone (or almost everyone) believes terrorism involves the use of threat of violence against civilians for a purpose. Secretary General Kof nnan, on 17th June 2004 said, “Terrorism strikes at the very heart of everything the United Natons stands for. It is a global threat to democracy, the rule of law, human rights and stability, and therefore requires a global response.� Human Rights and Terrorism United Natons defned human rights as rights inherent to all human beings, regardless of sex, race, natonality, ethnicity, language, religion, or any other status. It includes the right to life and liberty freedom from slavery and torture, freedom of opinion and expression, the right to work and educaton, and many
Do You Think United Nations Should Define Human Rights of Terrorists?
more. Everyone (including terrorists) is enttled to these right, without discriminaton. Human rights are for everyone; however, many people think they are stumbling blocks in the fght against terrorism because some of these rights usually gets abused by states when combatng terrorism and since human rights are for everyone, any form of abuse is not right. States abuse human rights when combatng terrorism through: 1. Torture and other ill treatments 2. Enforced disappearance 3. Arbitrary detenton 4. Racial profling 5. Inhuman and degrading treatment 6. Breeches of privacy rights 7. Violatons of due process rights
The panel of the internatonal commission of jurists found evidence of abuses of human rights when it conducted a study on counter terrorism. They found that since 2001: 1. People were held in secret prisons where they were subjected to torture
and various ill treatments; 2. People charged with terrorism are ofen tried before special courts,
which do not ofer essental fair trial guarantees;
Do You Think United Nations Should Define Human Rights of Terrorists? 3. People charged with terrorism are held for a long tme before being
charged or before they have an access to a lawyer; 4. Administratve measures afectng suspects are ofen ordered on the
basis of secret intelligence which is not disclosed to the afected individuals; 5. A lot of counter-terrorist measure lack basic safeguards such as due
process. The facts and fndings above all point to terrorism being quite impossible for many states to combat without abusing human rights. While a lot of people see nothing wrong in this because terrorists are ‘bad and dangerous’ people, other people see abusing human right in a bid to combat terrorism as wrong and that nothing could justfy the abuse of the rights of any individual. Now the queston is: Do you think the United Natons should defne human rights of terrorists? I think through online polls and surveys, an answer could surface and a consensus could be reached.