Liberty's Second Reading Briefing on the Counter-Terrorism & Security Bill in the House of Commons

media and political portrayals of human rights. 94 An obvious area for better Executive
leadership in countering the extremist narrative would be to support schools in the teaching
of human rights.
Conclusion
75. When the Coalition first came to power it bound itself together with the language of
civil liberties. With this Bill the Government abrogates its fledging commitment to ensure we
do not abandon our values in the fight against terror. In confronting an ugly ideology that
promotes arbitrary violence, the subjugation of women and tyranny, we would expect
political leaders to robustly and actively promote democratic values such as the rule of law,
human rights and equal treatment. Instead, the Bill plays into the hands of terrorists by
allowing them to shape our laws in a way that undermines our principles. Exclusion orders,
flight bans and passport seizures will do nothing to neutralise an organised terror threat
which does not respect international borders. Ad-hoc police powers and ever more restrictive
systems of civil orders will only deflect attention from arrests and prosecutions. Embroiling
our teachers in terror-policing will alienate and marginalise, whilst more powers to monitor
the nation’s online communication turn us into a nation of suspects. The Agencies by their
nature will always ask for more powers, concerned as they are with a short term preventative
agenda, not well-suited to the vital longer term goal of preventing radicalisation and
prosecuting and convicting terrorists. It is the job of Government and Parliamentarians,
charged with the long-term protection of national security, to interrogate their approach and
tightly circumscribe the powers available. The ISC has offered multiple suggestions for
reform of the agencies which are ignored in this Bill, as are measures aimed at facilitating
prosecutions through the extension of police bail and the removal of the bar on intercept in
criminal proceedings.
Rachel Robinson
Sara Ogilvie
Isabella Sankey
94 “Teaching human rights can be lonely with little student and staff support” The Guardian, available
at http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2013/oct/14/teaching-human-rightsequality-citizenship