Don Fowler, Sydney
The Leichhardt Peace Group has written a letter of concern about the proposed anti-terrorism legislation to the secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and has requested he refer it to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The peace group believes that should these laws be passed, Australians will be subject to secret arbitrary detention and innocent people will be detained, paving the way to a police state as warned by the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission president, John Von Doussa. In addition, politicisation of the judiciary and the police will occur; minority groups, particularly the Muslim community, will be further subjected to undue and unjust scrutiny; free speech will be reduced; and opposition to government policies will be silenced. In short, Australian society will be reduced to one of mistrust and fear. The group is also concerned that the proposed legislation will encourage racism.
The Coalition government and politicians from the Labor Party appear intent on ignoring the growing level of concern and unease about these proposed laws.
The group has concerns that the broad and punitive sedition clauses will silence dissenting voices, such as theirs, but they have vowed to continue on with their peaceful activities beyond the enactment of this legislation.
The group believes that the new laws will also violate the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other UN conventions that Australia has ratified including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
From Green Left Weekly, November 30, 2005.
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