A/HRC/4/26 page 9 Finally, the Absconder Apprehension Initiative prioritized the enforcement of deportation orders against those 2 per cent of deportable persons who originate from Arab and/or Muslim countries.10 37. In some cases, police forces have relied on profiles based on a person’s ethnic and/or religious appearance when conducting stops, document checks or searches for counter-terrorism purposes. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, government officials have openly acknowledged that law-enforcement efforts in the counter-terrorism context focus on particular ethnic or religious groups.11 Accordingly, stops and searches under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which authorizes the police in designated areas to stop and search people without having to show reasonable suspicion, have affected ethnic minorities. Between 2001-2002 and 2002-2003, for example, the number of persons of Asian ethnicity subjected to section 44 searches rose by 302 per cent as compared to a rise of 118 per cent for white people. By 2003-2004, Asian people were about 3.6 times more likely, and black people about 4.3 times more likely, to be stopped and searched under counter-terrorism legislation than white people.12 Similarly, police forces in the Russian Federation have subjected ethnic minorities to stops and document checks, which are often carried out in response to terrorist threats. A study of police practices on the Moscow metro system in 2005 found that persons of non-Slavic appearance were, on average, 21.8 times more likely to be stopped than Slavs.13 B. Compliance with human rights standards Non-discrimination and other human rights norms 38. Terrorist-profiling practices raise concerns with regard to a number of human rights guarantees. In the view of the Special Rapporteur, data-mining initiatives based on broad terrorist profiles that include group characteristics such as religion and national origin may constitute a disproportionate and thus arbitrary interference with the right to privacy, 10 Deputy Attorney General, Memorandum for the INS Commissioner, the FBI Director, the Director of the US Marshals Service and US Attorneys re Guidance for Absconder Apprehension Initiative, 25 January 2002, available at http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/ doj/abscndr012502mem.pdf; K. Lapp, “Pressing public necessity: The unconstitutionality of the Absconder Apprehension Initiative” (2005) 29 New York University Review of Law and Social Change 573, pp. 575-584. 11 V. Dodd, “Asian men targeted in stop and search”, The Guardian, 17 August 2005 (quoting the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police as follows: “We should not waste time searching old white ladies. It is going to be disproportionate. It is going to be young men, not exclusively, but it may be disproportionate when it comes to ethnic groups”). 12 Home Office, Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System - 2003 (2004), p. 28 and ibid. 2004 (2005), p. 33. 13 Open Society Justice Initiative and JURIX, Ethnic Profiling in the Moscow Metro (2006).