National Insecurity and Human Rights: Democracies Debate Counterterrorism (Global, Area, and International Archive)

256 Pages·2007·0.64 MB·English

by  Alison Brysk

National Insecurity and Human Rights

National Insecurity
and Human Rights
Democracies Debate Counterterrorism
Edited by
Alison Brysk Gershon Shafir
and
Global,Area,and International Archive
University of California Press
Berkeley Los Angeles London
The Global,Area,and International Archive (GAIA) is an initiative of
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© 2007 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
National insecurity and human rights :democracies debate
counterterrorism / edited by Alison Brysk and Gershon Shafir.
p. cm.—(Global,area,and international archive)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13:978-0-520-09860-2 (pbk.:alk.paper)
1.Civil rights—Case studies. 2.Human rights—Case studies.
3.Terrorism—Prevention. 4.International law—Case studies.
I.Brysk,Alison,1960–II.Shafir,Gershon.
JC585.N37 2007
363.325'17—dc22 2007018438
Manufactured in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1. Human Rights and National Insecurity
1
Alison Brysk
2. Encroaching on the Rule of Law:
Post-9/11 Policies within the United States
14
Richard Falk
3. The United States: Protecting Human Dignity
in an Era of Insecurity
37
David P.Forsythe
4. Northern Ireland:Violent Conflict
and the Resilience of International Law
56
Colm Campbell
5. The United Kingdom:The Continuity of Terror
and Counterterror
75
Todd Landman
6. Torturing Democracies:The Curious Debate
over the “Israeli Model”
92
Gershon Shafir
7. Democracy, Civil Liberties, and
Counterterrorist Measures in Spain
118
Salvador Martí,Pilar Domingo,and Pedro Ibarra
8. Canada’s Balancing Act: Protecting Human
Rights and Countering Terrorist Threats
137
Howard Adelman
9. Germany: State Responses to Terrorist
Challenges and Human Rights
157
Wolfgang S.Heinz
10. Conclusion: Human Rights in Hard Times
177
Gershon Shafir,Alison Brysk,and Daniel Wehrenfennig
Notes 189
Bibliography 213
Contributors 237
Index 239
To those who stand for rights in the face of fear—
especially Miriam and Vivienne.

Acknowledgments
We undertook this project as concerned scholars and citizens who saw the
international abuses and logic of conflict we had each studied for decades in
other regions suddenly echoed in our own society.We were also inspired by
responses to these legal abuses from global civil society,in this case the per-
spectives of our academic colleagues from various democracies who cast a
critical eye on the decline of U.S. behavior and norms, challenging us to
explain what went wrong.As American civil society finally begins to ques-
tion the conduct of the post–September 11 “war on terror,”and concerned
publics in other democracies debate counterterror measures inspired or
encouraged by the United States, we hope to contribute a comparative
analysis that shows that (state) crime does not pay—and reminds us that
human rights is the basis for a just andeffective foreign policy.
A key intellectual catalyst for this project came from Alison Brysk’s par-
ticipation in the Transatlantic Dialogue on Human Rights (2004–5),orga-
nized by the University of Minnesota’s David Weissbrodt,the University of
Essex’s Kevin Boyle,Morten Kjaerum of the Danish Human Rights Insti-
tute,and J.Paul Martin of Columbia University,and supported by Marco
Stoffel of the Third Millennium Foundation.All of the participants in these
Copenhagen and New York sessions helped to shape the agenda for this pro-
ject,and contributed greatly to our knowledge of the issues.
This volume grows directly from a conference held in February 2006 at
UC San Diego and UC Irvine.That conference was attended by all of the
contributors, as well as Frank Buijs (University of Amsterdam, Nether-
lands).Their willingness to travel long distances on short notice,draft inci-
sive analyses of emerging issues on tight deadlines,and engage in days of
ix