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	Human rights in context of counter-terrorism by Martin Scheinin   Oct 2007   Martin Scheinin, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, identified asylum-seekers as the largest group whose human rights were affected worldwide by counter-terrorism measures during a press conference at United Nations Headquarters this afternoon.   His recent report to the sixty-second session of the General Assembly focused on how counter-terrorist measures impacted refugee law and asylum. He said that, while racial, religious and ethnic groups were profiled and targeted in counter-terrorist measures, and terrorist suspects were also subjected to torture, inhuman, degrading treatment and arbitrary detention, asylum-seekers were the largest similarly situated group of persons whose human rights were “seriously and adversely affected by the fight against terrorism”.   “Asylum-seekers as a group should be a matter of more concern simply because it is the largest group of negatively impacted people,” he said.   To this end, his report addressed interception and border controls; exclusion on refugee status; resettlement and repatriation of persons detained for terrorism-related reasons; the application in counter-terrorism contexts of “non-refoulement”, the principle against sending an individual back to a situation that posed risks to his or her life or freedom or in which they risked being subjected to persecution, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; and strengthening responsibility for international protection.   He said one burning concern related to frequent patterns of mandatory or indefinite detention of asylum-seekers and he had urged Governments not to depart from the right to judicial review of any form of detention. Also, he added, although it did not happen in many countries today, the concept that there should not be detention without access to court was a cornerstone of human rights law and should govern immigration detention. He had, therefore, recommended that immigration detention be coupled with mandatory judicial review after 48 hours.   Turning to the issue of diplomatic assurances in the counter-terrorism context, he noted that many Governments now contested the rule of not returning anyone to countries where they would face torture, inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment, persecution or the death penalty. This position was partly based on diplomatic assurances in which the receiving country promised not to torture anyone sent back as a terrorism suspect, he said. Yet he had concluded in his report that diplomatic assurances could never replace the obligation of the sending State to conduct individual assessments of the real risks. Such assurances could at best be one of several elements in this real-risk assessment and that assessment should be subject to independent, preferably judicial review.   He said he also recommended that, as a matter of policy, Governments should not build their immigration control regimes over the institution of diplomatic assurances, which had tended not to work even when coupled with post-removal monitoring. If they were used, they should have a minimal role. Visit the related web page
	Argentina seeks to identify victims of ''Dirty War'' by SBS News   Oct. 2007   A new project has been launched in Argentina to identify the victims of the country''s so-called ''Dirty War''. Blood samples are being collected from the families of the thousands who disappeared under the military dictatorship of the 1970s and 80s in an effort to identify hundreds of skeletal remains.   A quarter of a century after the generals reign of terror ended in Argentina, families of the thousands of disappeared are still searching for answers. In the hope of finally being able to lay their questions to rest, the government and forensic experts have announced a new project.   Blood samples will be collected from family members and tested against the DNA of about 600 unidentified bodies. But launching the program, the forensics team didn''t want to create false hope.   Luis Fonderbrider, Anthropological Forensics Team: "We need to be clear that this project doesn''t mean we''ll be able to identify all of the names of such a large group of people. We don''t want to raise false expectations. It''s just a first attempt to try to form a bank of blood samples to try to find matches with the remains that we''ve uncovered and the bodies we still expect to find.   Officially, more than 11,000 people disappeared during Argentina''s Dirty War. Human rights groups put the death toll from the seven years of brutal dictatorship at 30,000 - perceived opponents of the military regime abducted, interrogated, tortured and killed.   As their still grieving parents age, the worry is that time will run out.   Hoping to provide them with some peace of mind, Argentina''s Human Rights Secretary says at least anguished parents can know that, even if they are no longer here physically, their blood samples will allow whatever remains are found to be identified.   The team is seeking to collect 3,600 blood samples which will be sent to the United States for analysis and then cross-checked with the DNA found in the remains. It''s the latest step in a renewed examination of the Dirty War as the current government attempts to address the haunting legacy of that era. Visit the related web page
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