A/HRC/8/52
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Government must fully protect asylum-seeking children and separated children who need a
guardian so that they receive the support they require. The detention of children with their
families in immigration removal centres continues. It added that the juvenile justice systems
continue to violate standards of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; the age of criminal
responsibility is much too low, custody is not used as a last resort, and anti-social behaviour
legislation allows children to be named and shamed in public despite the Committee on the
Rights of the Child urging the Government to ensure that it respect the privacy of children in
trouble with the law. Finally, it strongly urged the Government to accept all recommendations
made in the course of its review and to commit to implement them urgently. The
United Kingdom should also organize regular follow-up meetings between non-governmental
organizations and all relevant Government departments, and report annually to the Council on
progress being made.
390. Amnesty International welcomed many of the recommendations made by States to the
United Kingdom, including the call to review all counter-terrorism legislation to ensure that it
complies with the highest human rights standards; to reduce, rather than extend still further, the
maximum period of pre-charge detention for terrorism suspects; and to recognize that all persons
arrested or detained by United Kingdom armed forces, wherever and whenever that may be,
should be entitled to the full protection of the human rights instruments to which the
United Kingdom is a party. Given the prominence of the issue of counter-terrorism in the
interactive dialogue, Amnesty International noted with surprise that recommendations did not
specifically refer to the United Kingdom’s reliance on so-called “diplomatic assurances” to
facilitate the return of individuals to States where they face the risk of grave human rights
violations, including torture or other ill-treatment. Amnesty International expressed the belief
that the use of such assurances undermines the absolute prohibition of torture and had urged the
United Kingdom and others not to rely on such assurances. Amnesty International called on the
United Kingdom to carry out effective, independent and impartial investigations into incidents
where the actions of the police and other State agents may have led to violations of the right to
life or of the right to be free from torture and other ill treatment. Amnesty International urged the
United Kingdom to commit to repealing the Inquiries Act 2005 and to creating, in its place, a
genuinely independent mechanism for judicial inquiries into serious allegations of human rights
violations.
391. The Islamic Human Rights Commission congratulated the Council on the conclusions and
recommendations forwarded, which reflected also many of its concerns. It expressed deep
concern with the ever-increasing time of pre-charge and pretrial detention, which it had raised
several times in consultations with the Government. It was especially concerned since the next
day the bill increasing pre-charge detention from 28 to 42 days would be put to Parliament. It
stated that the need for this has never been identified, and noted that Britain has the longest
pre-charge detention limit in a liberal democracy. It urged the Government to refrain from this
unnecessary damaging policy, and also recommended reviewing the anti-terrorism law in the
light of the highest human rights standards. It expressed concern about the implementation of
anti-terror laws which has resulted in racism and religious profiling, which, it noted, is evidently
disproportional in the stop and search statistics.
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