NEWS
http://www.statewatch.org/news/JOINT POLICE OPERATION “MOS MAIORUM”1. EU: Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum" (13-26 October 2014): Statewatch Summary of News/Web of coverage
2. Joint Police Operation "Mos Maiorum": Statewatch can confirm that the UK is taking part
3. Joint Police Operation "Mos Maiorum": Document from Italian Interior Ministry giving instructions on how to treat migrants
4. European Parliament: DEBATE: Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum"
5. Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum": Demonstrations: Stockholm and Brussels
6. Operation Mos Maiorum: Interim report on mapping
7. Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum": Council's explanation "economical with the truth"
8. Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum": Day 5: Monitoring and reports
9. Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum”: European Green Party and reports
10. Joint Operation Mos Maiorum": Reports and campaigns
11. NOTHING TO DO WITH US STATEMENT from: Frontex
12. Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum" starts and Council put out censored document
NEWS1. LONDON: Occupy Democracy in Parliament Square
2. UK: MI5 spied on leading British historians for decades
3. UK: UNDERCOVER POLICE: Met pay £400,000 plus to victims of undercover officer
4. European Commission: Access to documents press release
5. EU: SEARCH, RESCUE & RIGHTS
6. USA-IRAQ: Blackwater sentences
7. European Parliament promises better public register of documents
8. EU: European Parliament: New Commission elected
9. Spain/Melilla: "Urine with ebola, fire and stones against the fence", or most brutal media manipulation possible by Peio M. Aierbe
10. EU: Fundamental rights and forced returns of migrants: Ombudsman opens investigation
11. Police use tear gas against 300 refugees in Calais
12. EU: European Parliament: MEPs select new European Data Protection Supervisor
13. EU: Council of the European Union: Foreign fighters documents
14. EU: European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE): Mare Nostrum
15. EU: Meijers Committee: to LIBE (Civil Liberties) Committee: Researchers Directive
16. ECHR Judgment: Collective expulsion: Afghan migrants and Greece
17. The Remote Drones Digest: New Ways of War: Is remote control warfare effective
18. Greece: CoE-CPT: "totally unacceptable" detention conditions
19. UK: Secret lawyer-client spying
20. UK: Defend the right to protest conference
21. EU: SMART BORDERS report
22. EU: Meijers Committee: Letter: Statelessness
23. UK: UNDERCOVER POLICING REPORT
24. EU-funded Study: Electronic mass surveillance fails - drastically
25. EU: Parliament promises better public register
26. USA-NSA (UK-GCHQ): iSpy: How the NSA accesses Smartphone data
JOINT OPERATION “MOS MAIORUM”1. EU: Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum" (13-26 October 2014): Statewatch Summary of coverage:(24.10.14): Media and Web coverage no 6 (pdf)
(20.10.14): Media and Web coverage: no 5 (pdf)
(17.10.14): Media and Web coverage: no 4 (pdf)
(15.10.14): Media and Web coverage: no 3 (pdf)
(13.10.14): : Media and Web coverage: no 2 (pdf) (2nd batch)
(13.10.14): Media-Web coverage: no 1 (pdf):
See: Map: Refugees Welcome (link)
and: "Mos Maiorum": Images and photos of protests (pdf)
2. Joint Police Operation "Mos Maiorum": Statewatch can confirm that the UK is taking part in Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum" This is said to involve the exchange of information by the Border Force but there is no information as yet to the involvement of police action around the country..
The UK took part in Joint Operation PERKUNAS in 2013: Final report on operation PERKUNAS (LIMITE doc no: 16045-13, pdf): "The largest proportion (48,89%) of interceptions was reported by Italy, with 4,800 intercepted irregular migrants. The second (15,36%) and third (7,89%) largest proportions of interceptions were reported by Germany (1,606 intercepted irregular migrants) and the United Kingdom (825 intercepted irregular migrants) respectively."and in 2012 in Joint Police Operation Aphrodite - final report (LIMITE doc no:6224-13, pdf) Interception of "irregular migrants": "Germany 1,510, United. Kingdom 728, Spain 468, Austria 387, Poland 365 and Switzerland 249 [emphasis added]
3. Joint Police Operation "Mos Maiorum": Document from Italian Interior Ministry giving instructions on how to treat migrants referred to during the debate in the European Parliament debate this week:Melting Pot (link) and street posters: Narbonne (jpg), Bordeaux (jpg) and Brussels (.jpg) and Web image used extensively: Mos Maiorum Warning (.jpg) Also check: 268 reports: Map: Refugees Welcome (link)
See also: Mos maiorum, a shortsighted and inhuman policy clashing with the humanitarian issues at the foundations of Europe (ASGI, link):
"It is a short-sighted and inhumane policy that ignores the right of asylum under the Treaties establishing the European Union, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and national constitutions, as well as all other instances of humanitarian who founded Europe."And: Fundamental rights should be considered when apprehending irregular migrants, says FRA (Fundamental rights Agency, link) alsoApprehension of migrants in an irregular situation – fundamental rights considerations (FRA, pdf)
4. European Parliament: DEBATE: Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum":MEPs ask for further details of EU-wide police crackdown on clandestine migrants (pdf):
Joint police operation "Mos Maiorum": extracts from the debate(recorded 22/10/2014) (link)
5. Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum": Demonstration in Stockholm: Thursday (link) and Demonstration in Brussels: Wednesday (link).
See also European Parliament: Resolutions on topical subject: Joint police operation "Mos Maiorum" (link): Debate today: afternoon/evening in plenary on Mos Maiorum (formally called "Council statement") but without resolution. You can follow the debate here:(link) An indicative timetable will be displayed from 15:00 on on the same page. See also: EU-wide "Mos Maiorum" police operation(Green/EFA Group, link)
6. EU: Operation Mos Maiorum: Interim report: documenting racist controls with mapping software (linksunten.indymedia.org. link): "For the first time we have set up such a mapping-software to visualize and make public racist controls in the EU. It is an experiment which still has a lot of room for improvement. But already now we can envision the potential of such a tool, once it becomes a common media practice for thousands of activists." See: Map: Refugees Welcome (link)
7. EU: Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum": Day 8: Council's explanation is "economical with the truth"Council Presidency says the operation is about the "collection of data on migration flow" when its stated purpose is to: "apprehend irregular migrants and gather relevant information for intelligence and investigative purposes."See: Council response to media coverage and widespread concern in civil society: What is "Mos Maiorum" joint operation? The collection of data on migration flows in EU countries has been launched (Official statement by Council Presidency, pdf)
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:
"This statement by the Council Presidency is "economical with the truth". The Council presents Joint Operation Mos Maiorum as a statistical exercise to gather data on migration flows when its main aim is quite different as stated in Full-text (pdf) which is to: "apprehend irregular migrants and gather relevant information for intelligence and investigative purposes."In the previous operation "Perkunas" 10,459 undocumented migrants were "intercepted", in Aphrodite 5,298 were "apprehended" and in Project FIMATHU (Europol-Austria and Hungary) 7,429 "illegal migrants" were "apprehended". In none of the reports on these three operations [see below] was any information given as to what happened to the migrants who were "intercepted" or "apprehended".
Did they ask for asylum, which they had the right to do? How many ended up in detention centres? How many were deported? Were these people afforded their rights or are EU fundamental rights, Treaties and the Charter simply not a consideration when it comes to Council-organised operations?"• Final report on operation PERKUNAS (LIMITE do no: 16045-13, pdf):"The largest proportion (48,89%) of interceptions was reported by Italy, with 4,800 intercepted irregular migrants. The second (15,36%) and third (7,89%) largest proportions of interceptions were reported by Germany (1,606 intercepted irregular migrants) and the United Kingdom (825 intercepted irregular migrants) respectively."• Final report on Joint Police Operation Aphrodite (LIMITE do no:6224-13, pdf) Interception of "irregular migrants": "Germany 1,510, United. Kingdom 728, Spain 468, Austria 387, Poland 365 and Switzerland 249."Both of these reports beg the question of whether the UK is taking part in Mos Maiorum?
• Europol press release: Europol supports successful cooperation between Austria and Hungary against illegal immigration (link)
Tthe outgoing Commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmstrom, weighed in in answer to Sylvie Guillaume, MEP: Letter to Guillaume MEP (pdf) saying "It is an operation of the Council and you should rather ask the question to the Council or President. The initiative is not supported by the Commission and there is no funding from the Commission." The same day the Council of the European Union in the person of the Council Presidency (currently Italy) responded.
And see: Statewatch Analysis: EU: Joint police operations target irregular migrants (pdf)
8. EU: Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum": Day 5: Media-Web coverage: update: (17.10.14, pdf)
For reports see: Refugees Welcome (link) and EU-Wide Police Operation 'Mos Maiorum' - What You Can Do (PICUM, link)
• WARNING: EU-wide police operation against refugees!!! emergency number for people facing problems when controlled in Berlin: 0151 12874001 (We will Rise, Berlin, link)
• OPGELET: grote 15-daagse Europese controle-operatie tegen “illegale” migratie (No Border Network, link)
• Lampedusa in Hamburg (link)
Background: Statewatch Analysis: EU: Joint police operations target irregular migrants (pdf) by Chris Jones: "The European Union is aiming to increase and formalise operational cooperation amongst law enforcement authorities. Significant effort is going into organising and carrying out joint police operations targeting irregular migrants."9. Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum”: • Operation Mos Maiorum(European Green Party, link) and Questions to Council (pdf) from Ska Keller MEP
• Stop the criminalization of undocumented migrants! Stop the “Mos Maiorum!” No to creeping fascization in Europe! (link)
• Video documenting an illegal return in melilla (the so-called "hot returns" straight across the border fence without any legal procedures) (link)
• Video: STOP (link) Shortfilm directed by Sergio Barrejón: "Every day, racist raids take place in Madrid. State policemen perform illegal racial profiling looking for unauthorized residents. Every day, thousands of citizen witness this blankly, while politicians simply deny the raids are even taking place. And every day, only a handful of people, connected by Twitter, try to help the victims."• Mos Maiorum’: an unacceptable blitzkrieg on migrants (European Alternatives, link): "The Statewatch website has done a considerable service in leaking a European Council document revealing the plans for a large-scale joint police surveillance of migrants between Monday 13th October and Sunday 26th October, and revealing that such surveillance raids happen every six months with the rotating presidency of the European Union. This latest operation, under the lead of the Italian Presidency, takes the name ‘Mos Maiorum’, referring to the traditional values of the Roman Republic: a reference which is not only a cynical euphemism for what is really a racist surveillance raid on anyone who looks like they might have been born outside the European Union, but also an alarming reference for a country with such a recent history of fascism."• Spain: Lawyer and Immigration Immigration Expert answers your queries by phone::" TEL. 807,502,019: Parainmigrantes.info has a legal advisory service pioneer in Spain through which any person can receive legal advice from an expert in Immigration Law...without an appointment at a very competitive cost."• Campaign in Spain: Operación Mos Maiorum La caza europea a los "sin papeles" (.quedalapalabra.com, link) and see: 37 Entidades del Estado Español: ANTE LA REDADA EUROPEA CONTRA PERSONAS MIGRANTES ‘MOS MAIORUM’ PREVISTA DEL 13 AL 26 DE OCTUBRE(pdf)
• Campaign in Italy: Migranti: parte la maxi retata etnica e razzista Mos Maiorum (reported in Contropiano.org, link): "Unione Sindacale di Base", a grassroots trade union is launching "Operation SOS Freedom of movement and of residence" throughout Italy."10. JOINT OPERATION: MOS MAIORUM:
• Cerca de 40 ONG alertan de posibles "redadas racistas" contra inmigrantes (Publico.es, link)
• EUROPEAN COMMISSION FOLLOWS FRONTEX AND DISTANCES ITSELF - AND EUROPOL - FROM COUNCIL'S JOINT OPERATION "MOS MAIORUM: News agency ANSA reports: "EU Commission denies involvement... the EU Commission has clearly stated that "it is a joint police operation, launched by the Italian six-month presidency of the EU Council. The coordinating authority is the Italian interior ministry and the European Commission is not involved in the operation, and nor has community funding been made available." It stressed that Europol is not involved either."• EU ruft zu Großfahndung "Mos Maiorum" 25 Länder suchen illegale Einwanderer [The EU calls for large scale operation "Mos Maiorum" - 25 countries search for illegal immigrants German TV: Chanel 5, Tagesschau, 13.10.2014 - watch the video]:
"Die Polizei in 25 Schengen-Staaten hat eine koordinierte Fahndung nach illegalen Einwanderern und Schlepperbanden aufgenommen. Im Zuge der Aktion "Mos Maiorum" werden zwei Wochen lang Bahn- und Flughäfen sowie Grenzübergänge intensiv kontrolliert. Flüchtlingsorganisationen kritisieren, Europa schotte sich immer mehr ab."[Police in 25 Schengen countries has launched a coordinated search for illegal immigrants and traffickers. Under the head of operation "Mos Maiorum", for two weeks train stations and airports as well as border crossings will be intensively checked. Refugee organisations criticise that Europe is continuing to seal itself off., [Statewatch translation]
• Sans Papiers Ni Frontières - Contre les frontières et leurs prisons - Opération Mos Maiorum, jour 1: 13 octobre 2014. Les contrôles dans le cadre de l’opération Mos Maiorum ont commencé. (link) See: JOINT OPERATION "MOS MAIORUM" Checks within the framework of operation "Mos Maiorum" have begun [Statewatch translation]
• Police launch EU-wide crackdown on migrants (euobserver, link):
• Partido Por un Mundo más Justo: video (link): Spanish campaign with well-known artists protesting "venid a por mi" means "come and get me"
11. NOTHING TO DO WITH US STATEMENT from: FRONTEX on Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum" (link):
"Statement by the Frontex Executive Director Gil Arias Fernandez on agency's participation in Mos Maiorum: “Following a number of media queries, Frontex would like to explain the scope of its participation in Mos Maiorum operation. Mos Maiorum is a Joint Police Operation launched by the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The coordinating authority is the Italian Ministry of Interior.
Frontex would like to stress that it has not had any role either in the planning or in implementation of this operation.... Publically available information on Mos Maiorum shows that the latter is not a border control operation. Its goals and way of execution is of ‘intra-Schengen’ and ‘police cooperation’ nature, which are not within the mandate of Frontex.”
For more information about this operation please contact the Italian Ministry of Interior."This is a bit odd as the document: Full-text (pdf) states that: "The JO “Mos Maiorum” will the coordinated by the Central Directorate for Immigration and Border Police of the Italian Ministry of Interior, in close cooperation with the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (FRONTEX). FRONTEX: will contribute to the operation by supporting the Italian Authority in providing risk analysis, forwarding information related to secondary movements and data gathered at the external borders."12. EU: SPECIAL REPORT: Joint Operation "Mos Maiorum" starts• Council put out censored, "partially accessible", version of the operation document deleting the date and all the details of Joint Operation (JO): Full-text (pdf) and Censored text (pdf)
NEWS1. LONDON: 9 farcical bits of policing at Occupy Democracy - Parliament Square has been the venue for some ridiculous policing since the Occupy movement arrived on 17 October. Alex Nunns gives the highlights (Red Pepper, blog)
Occupy London protesters start week long demonstration in Parliament Square (Evening Standard, link) And: Less freedom in Westminster's Parliament Square than in Hong Kong!! (Ecologist, link) See: Occupy Democracy camp (link)
Also: Westminster Council proposes banning "tents and similar structures" and "noise equipment" in crackdown on political protest(Statewatch database, link) and UN Special Rapporteur calls for a "judge-led public inquiry" into undercover police operations and condemns a number of other police practices (Statewatch database, link)
2. UK: MI5 spied on leading British historians for decades, secret files reveal - Eric Hobsbawm and Christopher Hill had phones tapped, correspondence intercepted and friends and wives monitored(Guardian, link):
“The scholars were subjected to persistent surveillance for decades as MI5 and police special branch officers tapped and recorded their telephone calls, intercepted their private correspondence and monitored their contacts, the files show. Some of the surveillance gave MI5 more details about their targets’ personal lives than any threat to national security."3. UK: UNDERCOVER POLICE: Met police to pay more than £400,000 to victim of undercover officer - Female activist who was traumatised after discovering that the father of her son was a spy is to receive compensation (Guardian, link):
"The Metropolitan police are to pay more than £400,000 to a woman who has been profoundly traumatised after discovering by chance that the father of her son was an undercover police officer.
It is the first time the police have made a payment to settle any of the legal claims brought by women who were deceived by undercover officers sent to spy on political and activist groups.
The woman has been receiving psychiatric treatment and has contemplated suicide since she read a newspaper in 2012 and found out the true identity of the man who had fathered her son before abandoning her and the child 24 years previously."4. European Commission: Access to documents: Requests for Commission documents reach record high (Press release, pdf):
"There were 6,525 requests – a rise of 8.5% on the 6,014 document requests in 2012. This compares with just 450 requests when the current rules entered into force in
2001. The Commission handles around twice as many requests as the Council and European Parliament combined, and grants access in more than four out of five cases.:" [emphasis added] :
See: Report on the application in 2013 of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (pdf) and: Annex - statistics (pdf): The Press release fails to mention: "The frequency of invoking the protection of the Commission's decision making process (Article 4(3)) as ground for refusal at the initial stage, in relation to all invoked exceptions, slightly increased in comparison with the previous year (27.1% against 25.2% in 2012). It was the most frequently invoked exception,..." [emphasis added and 16.3% of confirmatory applications are refused on the same grounds]
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch Director, comments:
"This is an extraordinary claim. One of the reasons the Commsiion get more requests for documents is that its public register of documents in manifestly incomplete. In 2008 the Commission refused to comply with the Recommendations of the European Ombudsman following a Statewatch complaint."See: Statewatch wins European Ombudsman complaint against the European Commission over its public register of documents – but it refuses to comply (pdf) "18 December 2008 the Ombudsman found it an instance of maladministration by the Commission and issued “Critical remarks” and said: “The Ombudsman remains unconvinced that it would be impossible, or logically impossible, to maintain a register of all documents that are in possession."5. SEARCH, RESCUE & RIGHTS: OHCHR Releases Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights at International Borders(Migrants at sea, link): "The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights yesterday issued Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights at International Borders. OHCHR, along with multiple stakeholders, has been working on the principles and guidelines since 2012"See: OHCHR: Recommended Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights at International Borders (pdf):
"International borders are not zones of exclusion or exception for human rights obligations. States are entitled to exercise jurisdiction at their international borders, but they must do so in light of their human rights obligations. This means that the human rights of all persons at international borders must be respected in the pursuit of border control, law enforcement and other State objectives, regardless of which authorities perform border governance measures and where such measures take place."6. USA-IRAQ: Blackwater Founder Remains Free and Rich While His Former Employees Go Down on Murder Charges (The Intercept, link):
"A federal jury in Washington, D.C., returned guilty verdicts against four Blackwater operatives charged with killing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians and wounding scores of others in Baghdad in 2007."7. EU Parliament promises a better document register (EDRI, link): "In 2011 the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) discovered that some European Parliament decisions regarding the ratification of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) were not recorded in any known document. A hidden class of documents (“coordinators’ minutes”) seemed to exist, but the Parliament denied their existence. The FFII filed a complaint with the European Ombudsman."See: Draft Recommendation of the European Ombudsman in the inquiry into complaint 262/2012/OV against the European Parliament(link):
"“Parliament should register all existing Parliament documents in its electronic Register of documents, in particular the minutes of the meetings of Parliament Committee Coordinators.”"8. EU: European Parliament: Parliament elects new European Commission (Press release, pdf)
9. Spain/Melilla: "Urine with ebola, fire and stones against the fence", or the most brutal media manipulation possible (Peio M. Aierbe, 16 October 2014)
10. EU: Fundamental rights and forced returns of migrants: Ombudsman opens investigation: Press release: Fundamental rights and forced returns of migrants: Ombudsman opens investigation (pdf) and Letter to Frontex: Own-initiative inquiry OI/9/2014/MHZ concerning the means through which Frontex ensures respect for fundamental rights in joint return operations (JRO) (pdf)
11. Polizei setzt in Calais Tränengas gegen über 300 Flüchtlinge ein[Police use tear gas against 300 refugees in Calais] (ZZ, (link to article in German): ""The French police used tear gas against 300 refugees that attempted to cross over the Channel from Calais to the UK by hiding in lorries. Most of the refugees are from Syria, Eritrea and Sudan and could have applied for asylum in France; however, many have family members in the UK."12. EU: European Parliament: Civil liberties MEPs vote on their preferences for EU data protection watchdog (Press release, pdf):
13. EU: Council of the European Union: Foreign fighters: follow-up on the Conclusions of the European Council of 30 August 2014 (LIMITE doc no: 14160-14, pdf) Including: "Invited the relevant working groups to explore the possibilities for sharing API data on internal EU flights and to reflect on the appropriate legal framework for this exchange."EU: Council of the European Union: EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator:Effective criminal justice response to the phenomenon of foreign fighters (LIMITE doc no: 14188-14, pdf):
"To what extent the existing measures in your national legislation are compliant with the requirement of UNSCR 2178(2014) to criminalise certain types of behaviour linked to the foreign fighters phenomenon? Do you plan to amend your legislation and what type of measures do you consider to this effect?
How would you assess the adequacy of the Framework Decision on terrorism in the context of the problems posed by foreign fighters to ensure an effective common EU legal framework to address this phenomenon? Which aspects need to be reviewed in this respect? Would it be desirable to have a collective implementation of UNSCR 2178(2014)?"And see: UN Resolution 2178-14 (pdf)
14. EU: European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE): ONE YEAR OF MARE NOSTRUM: Maintain Mare Nostrum: Stop Deaths in the Mediterranean (pdf): "NGOs warn that ending Italy’s rescue operation without replacing it by a well-resourced European search and rescue initiative would mean more deaths at sea."15. EU: Meijers Committee: To the LIBE (Civil Liberties) Committee:Note on the state of negotiations on the proposal for the recast of the Students Directive and Researchers Directive (pdf): "The reports on the implementation of the two Directives pointed out certain inadequacies in the two instruments, mainly concerning the admission conditions, rights, procedural safeguards, students’ access to the labour market, and intra-Union mobility."16. ECHR Judgment: Indiscriminate collective expulsion by the Italian authorities of Afghan migrants, who were then deprived of access to the asylum procedure in Greece (pdf) and Judgment (pdf)
"The case concerned 32 Afghan nationals, two Sudanese nationals and one Eritrean national, who alleged, in particular that they had entered Italy illegally from Greece and been returned to that country immediately, with the fear of subsequent deportation to their respective countries of origin, where they faced the risk of death, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment."17. The Remote Drones Digest, October 2014: New Ways of War: Is Remote Control Warfare Effective (pdf): "The Remote Control Project is a project of the Network for Social Change hosted by Oxford Research Group. The project examines changes in military engagement, in particular the use of drones, special forces, private military companies and cyber activities."18. Greece: Anti-torture report highlights “totally unacceptable” detention conditions (CoE, link) and Report to the Greek Government on the visit to Greece carried out by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) (pdf):
19. UK: First details of Government’s secret lawyer-client spying policies revealed (Reprieve, link): "Cori Crider, Reprieve strategic director and a lawyer for the Belhaj and Saadi families, said: “MI6 helped kidnap my clients and 'rendered' them to Gaddafi's dungeons - but the security services' misdeeds didn't stop there. We now know that each security service has at least a policy on their interception of privileged lawyer-client conversations – policies they claim are ‘too secret’ to disclose."See: Legal and policy regime (pdf)
20. UK: Defend the right to protest: Threats to Freedom of Assembly and Association (link) and see: Threats to the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association: Draft Briefing Paper for Litigating Assembly And Association Rights - A New Project From The UN Special Rapporteur (pdf) and National Conference: WE DO NOT CONSENT: Defend the Right to Protest Conference 2014, Sunday November 16th, 11am till late (link)
21. EU: SMART BORDERS report: Technical Study on Smart Borders: Executive Summary (Summary, pdf) and Full-report (443 pages, 5MB, pdf):
"The “Smart Borders Package” was proposed by the Commission in February 2013. It follows the European Commission (EC) Communication of February 2008 suggesting the establishment of an Entry/Exit System (EES) and a Registered Traveller Programme (RTP). The Smart Borders Package is constituted of three legislative proposals. It aims to improve the management of the external borders of the Schengen Member States (MS), fight against irregular immigration and provide information on overstayers, as well as facilitate border crossings for pre-vetted frequent third country national (TCN) travellers."22. EU: Meijers Committee: Letter to Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Home Affairs: A proposal for an EU directive on the identification of statelessness and the protection of stateless persons (pdf): "The vulnerable position of stateless persons is increasingly recognized as one of Europe’s major human rights issues. Over 400,000 stateless persons are believed to be living in the European Union."23. UK: UNDERCOVER POLICING REPORT: HMIC: An inspection of undercover policing in England and Wales (14 October 2014, 202 pages, pdf) See:
1,200 undercover police officers operating across England and Wales - Watchdog lambasts senior officers responsible for tactic and calls for reform of national group overseeing covert deployments (Guardian, link):
“The watchdog broke new ground by disclosing the breadth of modern undercover work, revealing that there were 3,466 undercover operations in England and Wales between October 2009 and September 2013 and that at the most recent count, 1,229 officers in 39 units are trained as undercover officers."See: Press statement from women on HMIC report on undercover policing (pdf)
See also 2012 report: A review of national police units which provide intelligence on criminality associated with protest (pdf)
24. EU-Funded Study: Electronic Mass Surveillance Fails – Drastically(Surveille project, link):
"Electronic mass surveillance – including the mass trawling of both metadata and content by the US National Security Agency – fails drastically in striking the correct balance between security and privacy that American officials and other proponents of surveillance insist they are maintaining."25. EU Parliament promises to better register its decisions (link):
"In 2011 the FFII discovered that some European Parliament decisions regarding the ratification of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) were not recorded in any known document. A hidden class of documents (“coordinators’ minutes”) seemed to exist, but the Parliament denied the existence. The FFII filed a complaint with the European Ombudsman.
The ombudsman found a systemic failure regarding the listing of documents in the Parliament’s registry of documents. In response, the Parliament took measures to better comply with EU law. However, the Parliament’s measures are limited. It did not take measures to ascertain all its documents are properly registered. Questions remain, as we will see below."26. USA-NSA (UK-GCHQ): iSpy: How the NSA Accesses Smartphone Data (Der Spiegel, link):
"The mini-computers have become personal communication centers, digital assistants and life coaches, and they often know more about their users than most users suspect.
For an agency like the NSA, the data storage units are a goldmine, combining in a single device almost all the information that would interest an intelligence agency: social contacts, details about the user's behavior and location, interests (through search terms, for example), photos and sometimes credit card numbers and passwords.... Smartphones, in short, are a wonderful technical innovation, but also a terrific opportunity to spy on people, opening doors that even such a powerful organization as the NSA couldn't look behind until now....
The NSA and its partner agency, Britain's GCHQ, focused with similar intensity on another electronic toy: the BlackBerry."USING THE STATEWATCH WEBSITENews Online: http://www.statewatch.org/news/newsfull.htmWhats New (all new items): http://www.statewatch.org/whatsnew.htmIn the News and Statewatch News Digest:http://www.statewatch.org/news/Newsinbrief.htmObservatories (20): http://www.statewatch.org/observatories.htmAnalyses (1999 - ongoing): http://www.statewatch.org/analyses.htmStatewatch Journal: Current issue:http://www.statewatch.org/contents/swjournal23n2.htmlStatewatch Journal: Archive: Since 1991:http://www.statewatch.org/subscriber/Database, over 30,000 items:http://database.statewatch.org/search.aspStatewatch European Monitoring & Documentation Centre on Jutice and Home Affairs in the EU: http://www.statewatch.org/semdoc/JHA Archive - EU Jutice and Home Affairs documents from 1976 onwards: http://www.statewatch.org/semdoc/index.php?id=1143About Statewatch: http://www.statewatch.org/about.htm