Without the Right to Exist: Mass Incarceration and National Security

2020 ◽  
pp. 193-209
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The Right

Governmental Censorship in War-Time

1942 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 837-849 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byron Price
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Free Enterprise ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Radio Industry ◽  
Democratic Principles ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Right ◽  
Free People ◽  
Magazine Articles

To a free people, the very word “censorship” always has been distasteful. In its theory, it runs counter to all democratic principles; in practice, it can never be made popular, can never please anyone.Everything the censor does is contrary to all that we have been taught to believe is right and proper. The Post Office Department, for example, has two proud mottoes: “The mail must go through,” and “The privacy of the mail must be protected at all hazards.” But censorship stops the mail, it invades the privacy of the mail, it disposes of the mail as may seem best. The same thing holds true in the publishing business. Censorship limits the lively competition and free enterprise of reporters. It relegates many a scoop to the waste basket. It wields a blue pencil—both theoretical and actual—on news stories, magazine articles, advertisements, and photographs. Censorship also enters the radio industry, where it may edit scripts and in some cases stop entire programs.Yet even the most vociferous critics of the principle of censorship agree that in war-time some form and amount of censorship is a necessity. It then becomes not merely a curtailment of individual liberty, but a matter of national security. It is one of the many restrictions that must be imposed on people fighting for the right to throw off those restrictions when peace returns.

Nepal’s Post Pandemic Diplomacy

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-170
Author(s):  
John Narayan Parajuli
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Regional Cooperation ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Domestic Institutions ◽  
Small State ◽  
Policy Capacity ◽  
The Right ◽  
Middle Powers ◽  
Capacity Gap

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of priortising health and other social and environmental issues and treating them as national security concerns. Taking a small state policy capacity approach-a small state’s ability to make informed policy decisions, this article looks at the nascent efforts being made to pursue regional cooperation in dealing with non-conventional threats in South Asia; and both implications and opportunities for Nepal to diversify its diplomatic engagement with a view to bridging its own domestic capacity gap-heightened by the pandemic. This analytical article argues that this is the right time for Nepal to reframe the issue of health and other emergencies, recalibrate the roles of its domestic institutions and diversify its diplomacy with the regional players and pivotal middle powers for building domestic capacity.

The Necessity of Performance Measures for Prosecutors

2021 ◽  
pp. 226-258
Author(s):  
Lauren-Brooke Eisen ◽  
Miriam Aroni Krinsky
Keyword(s):  
Performance Measures ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Critical Data ◽  
District Attorneys ◽  
The Right ◽  
Individual Line

Local prosecutors are responsible for 95 percent of criminal cases in the United States—their charging decisions holding enormous influence over the number of people incarcerated and the length of sentences served. Performance metrics are a tool that can align the vision of elected prosecutors with the tangible actions of their offices’ line attorneys. The right metrics can provide clarity to individual line attorneys around the mission of the office and the goals of their job. Historically, however, prosecutor offices have relied on evaluation metrics that incentivize individual attorneys to prioritize more punitive responses and volume-driven activity—such as tracking the number of cases processed, indictments, guilty pleas, convictions, and sentence lengths. Under these past approaches, funding, budgeting, and promotional decisions are frequently linked to regressive measures that fail to account for just results. As more Americans have embraced the need to end mass incarceration, a new wave of reform-minded district attorneys have won elections. To ensure they are accountable to the voters who elected them into office and achieve the changes they championed, they must align measures of success with new priorities for their offices. New performance metrics predicated on the goals of reducing incarceration and enhancing fairness can shrink prison and jail populations, while improving public trust and promoting healthier and safer communities. The authors propose a new set of metrics for elected prosecutors to consider in designing performance evaluations, both for their offices and for individual attorneys. The authors also suggest that for these new performance measures to effectively drive decarceration practices, they must be coupled with careful, thoughtful implementation and critical data-management infrastructure.

scholarly journals The Dilemma of Australian Pacific Solution: The Non-Refoulement Principle Versus National Security

2019 ◽  
Vol 06 (02) ◽  
pp. 340-360
Author(s):  
Ninin Ernawati
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
The Other ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
Refugee Convention ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
International Obligation ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
International Obligations ◽  
The Right

The Australian Government has issued various policies to deal with refugees. One of the policies is the Pacific Solution and it is considered as a manifestation of national security principles. On one hand, the policy against the non-refoulement principle, which is the central principle of the refugee convention and Australia is one of the states that ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention. Obviously, Australia should not violate the non-refoulement principle. On the other hand, Australia has experienced a dilemma between prioritizing its interests and fulfilling international obligation to protect refugees who entering its territory. This article discusses whether the national security principle is contrary to the non-refoulement principle; and how Australia can accommodate both principles without neglecting the rights of refugees and still be able to maintain their interests. This article also reviews how Australia can implement policies based on national security principle when it has to face international obligations–in this case, the non-refoulement principle. This research concludes that the national security and the non-refoulement principle are basically contradictory. However, Australia can accommodate these two principles by counterbalancing actions, such as the establishment of national laws that still highly consider humanitarian standards contained in the non-refoulement principle. Australia has the right to implement number of policies based on its national law, while that the same time Australia cannot ignore their international obligation to protect refugees in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention that they have ratified. Reflecting on some previous policies, this study concludes that Australia has not been able to accommodate both principles.

Enforcement

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Right To Know ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Codes Of Practice ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Right To Know ◽  
Appeal Process ◽  
The Right ◽  
Court Of Appeal

Chapter 6 deals with the ways in which public authorities may be encouraged and compelled to implement the right to know. A distinction is drawn between the powers of the Information Commissioner to promote good practice in accordance with the codes of practice outside the context of a particular request for information and the enforcement of such a request. Chapter 6 outlines the procedure for appealing to the Commissioner and the First-tier Tribunal and states how an appeal can come before the Upper Tribunal, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court. It identifies the ways in which confidentiality is preserved during the appeal process: the closed material procedure and the national security appeals tribunal. It discusses the limits which the Courts have placed on ministerial vetoes; enforcement by contempt proceedings; and the position of third parties. The First-tier Tribunal Rules provide for their joinder.

2 Right to a Public Trial

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clooney Amal ◽  
Webb Philippa
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
National Security ◽  
Criminal Trial ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Nature ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines the right to a public trial, which protects both the defendant in a criminal trial and the interests of society as a whole in having a fair system of open justice. Under international human rights law, the right requires that a criminal trial should be held in public and that the court’s judgment is pronounced publicly. However, the right to a public trial is not absolute. The right may, for instance, be limited by valid national security concerns, or to protect the interests of a child or victim of sexual assault. This chapter examines the circumstances in which international bodies have found that exceptions to the right to a public trial are justified, and the additional measures that may be required to ensure that a criminal trial remains fair when there are restrictions on the public nature of proceedings. right to fair trial

13. The right to life

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhona K. M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
National Security ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Security Forces ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines African, American, European, and international jurisprudence on the right to life. It discusses the positive obligation incumbent on States to protect life; the permissible deprivation of life (the death penalty, death caused by national security forces, and death during armed conflict); and the issue of genocide. The chapter concludes that the right to life is of paramount importance in international human rights law. International law covers not only the straightforward human rights aspects, but also extends to the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.

The Right to Privacy v National Security in Africa: Towards a Legislative Framework Which Guarantees Proportionality in Communications Surveillance

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 360-390
Author(s):  
Justice Alfred Mavedzenge
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
International Law ◽  
Right To Privacy ◽  
African Countries ◽  
The Right To Privacy ◽  
Ideal Approach ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
The Right ◽  
Security Communication ◽  
The Ideal

Abstract Governments often resort to communications surveillance in order to combat threats against national security. Communication surveillance infringes upon the right to privacy. In order to protect privacy, international law requires communication surveillance to be proportionate. However, very little has been written to justify why this right deserves such protection in Africa, given counter-arguments suggesting that where national security is threatened, the state must be permitted to do everything possible to avert the threat, and the protection of privacy is an inconvenience. This article addresses these counter-arguments by demonstrating that the right to privacy deserves protection because it is as important as defending national security. It analyses approaches taken by selected African countries to regulate authorisation of communication surveillance. This article questions the assumption that prior judicial authorisation is the ideal approach to regulating communication surveillance in order to guarantee proportionality, and it suggests a need to consider other alternatives.

scholarly journals Seeking asylum in the digital era: social-media and mobile-device vetting in asylum procedures in five European countries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maarten P Bolhuis ◽  
Joris van Wijk
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
National Security ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Private Life ◽  
New Methods ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
The Right ◽  
Social Sorting ◽  
Tools And Methods

Abstract The increasing use of social media and mobile devices by asylum seekers offers new vetting opportunities for immigration authorities, to verify the identity or to assess national-security or 1F-exclusion aspects. Based on interviews with practitioners in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, the first experiences with both of these new methods seem to be mixed, while formal evaluations of the results seem to be lacking. We argue that the increasing reliance on these methods, in combination with the further advancement of technology, raises important questions about possible infringements on the right to private life, as well as the risk of function creep and social sorting. It can be questioned to what extent the use of these new vetting tools and methods is proportional to the results they produce and to what extent fundamental human rights, including privacy, are sufficiently safeguarded.

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