Documents and Publications
Draft European Parliament and Council Directive on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, 53 p., Doc 9951/94, confidential, undated.
World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna: The Contribution of NGOs, edited by Manfred Nowak, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights, Vienna, Vienna 1994, published by Manz, 298 p., ISBN 3-214-00103-5.
More than 1500 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were present at the second World Conference on Human Rights, held by the United Nations in Vienna from 14 to 25 June 1993. The conference agenda included a two day global NGO Forum that resulted in the adoption of common recommendations aimed at strengthening the UN human rights programme. Many of these recommendations found their way into official Vienna declaration and Programme of Action. NGOs also carried out some 400 parallel events in which they voiced their particular concerns, both country specific and item oriented. These activities were coordinated by the Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights.
This book contains the most important NGO-documents related to the Conference and all the background papers presented to the NGO-Forum together with its agenda and rules of procedure and the oral and written report of the NGO-Forum. It is an impressive survey of the global human rights movement.
An introduction by Manfred Nowak and Ingeborg Schwarz says: "The Conference clearly showed the complexity of the current human rights discussion which sometimes brings about the most strange coalitions between NGOs and States. At the Conference, most NGOs, from the North as well as from the South, supported Southern governments in essential questions such as the recognition of the right to development or the right to asylum. The same NGOs joined with Northern governments in condemning vehemently the gross and systematic human rights violations in many Southern countries (...). On the other hand, a number of Southern NGOs tended to stick to the formula on non-intervention in the so-called internal affairs of their own country. Even if one agrees that the NGOs during the World Conference often gave the impression of being an uncoordinated, contradictory and divided movement, they did contribute greatly to the success of the gathering."
Asile - Violence - Exclusion en Europe: Histoire, analyse, prospective, edited by M.C. Tschopp, A. clévenot, and M.P. Tschopp, published by the Geneva Group - Violence and Asylum in Europe and the University of Geneva, Department of Educational Sciences; 463 p., in French.
This book contains texts by 42 authors, most of whom participated at a Conference at the University of Geneva organised by the Geneva Group - Violence and Asylum in Europe, in September 1993. The Conference represented a necessary attempt to find a new interdisciplinary approach to the problem of asylum and its inter-relation with increasing social violence and exclusion in western Europe. Indeed, the issue of asylum has become a social-political factor of such importance that a merely legal and human rights approach of the problem no longer suffices.
The situation of refugees in our societies is an indicator of the "state of health" of western European democracies, i.e. their ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
With contributions from philosophers, psychologists, economists, political scientists, jurists, social workers, lawyers and grass-roots activists, this book is an inspiring source of reflection on the state of western societies as revealed by the phenomenon of asylum and immigration.
Some of the essays and analyses in the book: A war of foundation in Europe (R. Ivekovic); State power and counter-powers in "the South" when the State is disintegrating (V.D. Bonilla); Daily violence ("X.", asylum seeker); When refugees become "terrorists" in their host country (H.E. Schultz); Confrontations between refugees, citizens, and public administration (Ch. Tafelmacher); The transfer of responsibility: a silent violence (M. Ulricksen-Vinar); Asylum in the Schengen area: the definition of "the Other" as a stake in social conflicts (A. Sayad); Situations of violence and migrations: from human rights to social rights (C. Calame); The right of asylum and global violence (L. Ardesi); Asylum and the Schengen Agreements (L. van Outrive); The Schengen laboratory (M. Pastore); Police or politics? (N. Busch); Today in Europe (C. Guillaumin); A policy of peace in ex-Yugoslavia (J. Oeberg); At the limits of law, humanitarian aid and politics (F. Rigaux); What is a "frontier"? (E. Balibar).
Available at 35 Sfr/130 Ffr/700 Bfr/28 DM at: GGE, Marie-claire Caloz-Tschopp, Université de Genève, Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, 9 route de Drize, CH-1227 Carouge-Geneva; Tel: +41/22 7057111; Fax: +41/22 3428924.The Making of European Immigration Policies, by Jan Niessen, CCME Briefing Paper No.15, 35 pages.
This paper does not contain an analysis of current migration and refugee policies. Thera are already many of these available. Instead, it is an attempt to formulate proposals for European policy-making procedures using existing international fora and in compliance with international human rights standards. The emphasis of the paper is on migration for economic and social reasons.
Price: 12 DM/240 Bfr/5£. Available at: CCME, 174 rue Joseph II, B-1040 Brussels; Tel: +32/2 2302011; Fax: 32/2 2311413.Carriers' Liability in the Member States of the European Union, by Antonio Cruz, CCME Briefing Paper No.17, 28 p.
Over the years, carriers' liability legislation has been introduced in most of the Member States of the European Union. According to the author of this paper, the professed reason for its introduction is not so much to combat clandestine immigration but rather the prevention of the alleged abuse of asylum procedures. One of the questions raised is whether this goal has been reached by making carriers liable for transporting people without the proper travel documents. The paper is based on a more comprehensive report by the author which, among other things, contains extensive material on case law and the application of such laws since their introduction. The Briefing Paper and the full report can be ordered from the CCME (address: see above).
Turning up the heat: MI5 after the cold war, by Larry O'Hara, published by Phoenix Press, London, 1994, 96 p.; ISBN 0 948984 29 5.
This book, examines the scope of MI5, the internal British secret service and its ideology. Although Northern Ireland is the most important theatre of operations for MI5, the book focuses on the service's operations against what the author calls "domestic dissidents" that, in his opinion, are not receiving the necessary attention of the public.
The author suggests that the peace process initiated in Northern Ireland, were it to result in a genuine end to hostilities, would cause MI5 "acute problems, not least self-justification". Recent "public relations" activities of the service, unprecedented in the secretive history of British intelligence service, and growing rivalry between MI5, the foreign secret service MI6, and various branches of the police indicate that MI5 is attempting to justify its survival by seeking an extension of its powers, to the prejudice of citizens, exposed to the service's increasing means of surveillance.
Despite the author's tendency to making conjectures about what he believes to be MI5 plotting, the book offers an interesting insight in the inner life of one of the leading western secret services in the post-Cold War era.
Price: 5£ (postage not included). Available at: AK Press, 22 Lutton Place, Edinburgh EH8PE, UK; Tel/Fax: +44/31 6671507.Mehr Sicherheit durch private Wachdienste?(More security through private security enterprises?), published by the Hamburg Section of Bündnis 90/DIE GRÜNEN, Hamburg, 1994, brochure, 111 p., in German.
The brochure contains the speeches of five German experts on security and policing at a public hearing in Hamburg, in July 1994.
Contents: Introduction by Manfred Mahr; "Security only for the wealthy?", by Konrad Freiberg, Member of the Federal Board of the German Police Union; "Security enterprises - from Big Brother' to thebig family'?, by Thilo Weichert, President of the German Association for Data Protection; "What can private security and protection companies offer?", by Eggert Finberg, Federation of German Security enterprises; "Private security services and order policies of the State", by Heiner Busch, Working Group on Civil Liberties and Police, Freie Universität Berlin.
The Humanitarian Law Fund (HLF):Expulsion of national minorities (Banja Luka and Bijeljina), Spotlight Report No. 14, August 1994, 10 p.
Information on the migration and deportation of the remaining non-Serbs in Banja Luka and Bijeljina (FRY).
Witness against the state security service, Spotlight report No. 15, October 1994, Belgrade, 3 p.
The HLF accuses the State Security Service department in Novi Pazar (Sanjak, FRY) of beating and threatening a Muslim man during a trial in order to make him testify against the accused, and of blackmailing him after he filed criminal charges against the police.
Reports available at: Humanitarian Law Fund, Terazije 6/III, 11000 Belgrade, Tel: +381/1 658430, Fax: +381/1 646341.