HRF has written a series of reports on the erosion of civil liberties in the
U.S. since 9/11. The three reports, and the dates they cover, are:
Assessing
the New Normal
3/03 to 9/03
Imbalance
of Powers
9/02 to 3/03
A Year
of Loss
9/01 to 9/02
Introduction
Chapter
1
Open Government
This chapter covers increasing government secrecy, and attempts
to limit public debate, including: restrictions on the Freedom of Information
Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and increased secrecy surrounding
the implementation of emergency laws such as the USA PATRIOT Act.
Chapter
Two
Right to Privacy
This chapter deals with a series of initiatives that intrude
on individual right to privacy, including: the military’s Total Information
Awareness Program to create comprehensive data profiles on citizens; the use
of expanded search and seizure powers under the USA PATRIOT Act to seize library,
bookstore, and other records; the increased powers to intercept telephone and
internet communications; the lifting of restrictions on the use of special foreign
intelligence powers in ordinary criminal prosecutions; and proposals to terminate
all court-supervised agreements entered into by police departments that prevent
police spying on people under no suspicion of having committed a crime.
Chapter
Three
Treatment of Immigrants, Refugees and Minorities
This chapter addresses the way some immigrant communities have
continued to bear the brunt of many of the Justice Department’s anti-terrorism
initiatives. It details the monitoring, registration, detention, and deportation
of immigrants against whom no charges have been made; restrictions on visitors
and immigrants alike from many parts of the world; and a reversal of United
State’s traditional welcome to refugees fleeing persecution abroad.
Chapter
Four
Security Detainees and the Criminal Justice System
This chapter covers the increasing reliance on ad hoc measures
the United States has created to deal with those suspected of ties to al Qaeda,
including: the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens; the proposed use of military
commissions; the status of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and reports
of use of torture.
Chapter
Five
The United States and International Human Rights Protection
Examples from Liberia, Uganda, Eritrea, Pakistan of how other
governments have mimicking some of the most draconian aspects of what the U.S.
government has done in response to September 11.
Recommendations
US Law & Security
|
Imbalance
of Powers:
How Changes to U.S. Law & Policy Since 9/11
Erode Human Rights and Civil Liberties
Basic human rights protections and civil liberties
have steadily eroded in the 18 months since the Sept. 11 attacks,
the Human Rights First said in a new report called
“Imbalance of Powers.”
Imbalance
of Powers - Full Report
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Imbalance
of Powers - Digest
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of Powers - Digest
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Report
Report by Chapter
Introduction
On Open Government
On Right to Privacy
On
Treatment of Immigrants, Refugees and Minorities
On Security Detainees
and the Criminal
Justice System
On The United States
and International Human Rights Protection
Recommendations
Michael
Posner on the erosion of civil liberties since 9/11 (3 minutes)
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Read the
precursor to Imbalance of Powers:
“A Year of Loss: Reexamining Civil Liberties Since September
11 (September 2002)” which covers the period from September
2001 to September 2002
|
