wr2014_web_0

EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIAIn February, Spain’s Supreme Court annulled the Lleida, Catalonia, city ordinancebanning full-face veils, saying it violated freedom of religion. The regionalgovernment announced its intention in July to prohibit face coverings in publicon security grounds, while news emerged in August that Catalonia policewere collecting data on women wearing the full-face veil.The CPT expressed concerns in April about allegations of ill-treatment of incommunicadoterrorism-suspects and of people in police custody, and prison conditions.The committee also criticized the “prison-like” atmosphere in immigrationdetention centers.In October, the ECtHR upheld its 2012 ruling that retroactive lengthening ofprison sentences, limiting eligibility for parole for people convicted of terrorismoffenses, violated fair trial standards. By mid-November, 31 prisoners—24 ofthem ETA members—had been released in compliance with the ruling.The Interior Ministry reported in September that almost 3,000 migrants attemptedto enter the Spanish enclave of Melilla since January, almost double thenumber in the same period in 2012. Over three-quarters were prevented fromentering, amid allegations that Spanish law enforcement officials summarilyreturned migrants to abuse at the hands of Moroccan police.United KingdomSenior ministers regularly attacked the Human Rights Act and the ECtHR, andHome Secretary Teresa May stated that if re-elected in 2015 the Conservativeparty would scrap the Act and possibly withdraw from the European Conventionon Human Rights.Accountability for counterterrorism and overseas abuse suffered setbacks. AnApril law extended secret hearings on national security grounds in civil courts.The government did not establish a new inquiry into UK involvement in renditionand torture overseas, nor had it published any part of the aborted Gibsoninquiry’s interim report.The UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) urged the UK in May to establish acomprehensive inquiry into allegations of torture and other ill-treatment duringthe UK’s military intervention in Iraq between 2003 and 2009. The same month,the High Court said there had been no adequate inquiry into the deaths of451