Anti-terrorism laws: unjust powers
Do anti-terror laws make us safer? Whom do they protect?
- define terrorism more broadly, thus blurring any distinction between anti-government protest and organized violence against civilians;
- label numerous organisations as ‘terrorist', as a basis for placing entire communities under suspicion of associating with ‘terrorism';
- use ‘intelligence' obtained by torturing detainees abroad;
- and detain and prosecute people for suspected activities which could just as well be handled under other laws. Read more

What's new
Julian Assange and Iraq Body Count sought to minimise harm to US government sources through a process which was "painstakingly approached by" the death toll monitoring group, "Julian Assange and his Wikileaks colleagues", Professor Sloboda told the Old Bailey.
Sputnik, September 17th 2020
The US government alleges that WikiLeaks and Assange do not follow standard journalistic practices and unreasonably jeopardised the lives of government informants, but the court heard arguments on Wednesday that in fact the opposite is true.
Sputnik, September 16th 2020
Even if Julian Assange's trial in the US "goes brilliantly" he can expect to be sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison following a conviction but could still go as high as 175 years, defence expert and criminal defence lawyer Eric Lewis told the Old Bailey on Monday.
Sputnik, September 14th 2020
‘As Covid lays siege to prison after prison, including yours, they know, that given your condition, a life sentence could so easily become a death sentence.’
Scroll.in, July 20th 2020
This week, Parliament debated the government’s new Counter-Terrorism Bill. In that debate, some of us opposed the continuation of the divisive Prevent programme. This position should be taken up not only by the left as a whole but by the labour movement, by all those fighting for a less divided society.
Morning Star, 28th July 2020
CAGE hosted a discussion alongside the Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC) and the Transnational Institute to discuss the way forward.
Watch it here here
The new Counter-Terrorism and Sentencing Bill 2020, will not enhance public security. On the contrary it will:
• Extend punishment without trial, including even internal exile, renewable indefinitely;
• Turn ordinary crimes into ‘terrorist’ ones, as subjective grounds for more severe sentences;
• Incentivise racist stereotyping of ‘non-violent extremism’ to justify those two powers;
• and thus go further in criminalising communities.
Exclusive: leaked document shows Prevent strategy is more about monitoring extremists than safeguarding the vulnerable, campaigners say. The Guardian, 21st February 2020
CAMPACC has produced 5 new briefings, available to download (pdf format):