Anti-terrorism lays siege to civil liberties

Patrick Baudouin, a lawyer and honourary president of the International Federation for Human Rights (IFHR), expresses alarm over the growing number of special anti-terrorist laws such as the one France has just adopted. "Those who really risk becoming the main victims of the overblown security measures linked to anti-terrorism are not the terrorists, but citizens and democracies. (...) The time is ripe for us to mobilise in order to break the infernal spiral that leads us, with each dramatic terrorist act, driven by strong emotions and even panic, to irrationally and demogogically adopt measures that are as counter-productive as they are illegitimate and which run counter to international human rights law. (...) We must not forget that State terror claims more victims in the world every day than terrorism."

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