Terrorism measures have ‘failed’

A parliamentary committee has revealed that Terrorism Prevention Investigation Measures (TPIMs) have largely failed.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights has described TPIMs as “withering on the vine” after consulting several groups with expertise in the area including CAGEprisoners Ltd. (CAGE) a human rights organisation that exists to raise awareness of the plight of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the War on Terror.

Their website was launched in October 2003 during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by concerned individual Muslim volunteers.

CAGE’s submission, which was based on interviews with TPIMs subjects argues that like its forbear, control orders, TPIMs “are functionally punitive measures enforced on individuals and families who have never been convicted of any crime”.

It concludes by urging the government to ‘scrap TPIMs and all systems of administrative detention.

A TPIMs survivor who wishes to remain anonymous said: “TPIMs are a destructive set of measures that demolish an individual’s human rights. The mental torture inflicted on me and my family was so grave that my daughter stopped speaking for a long period of time and my marriage ended in divorce. These measures are an affront to due process.”

Cerie Bullivant, TPIMs programme co-ordinator at CAGE and former control order detainee said: “It’s hardly surprising that the Joint Committee on Human Rights should reach this conclusion as TPIMS are thoroughly against the norms of British justice. Unless they are scrapped immediately they will continue to tarnish our legal system and alienate Muslims further.”