War on terror or war on human rights? Implications of the war on terror for human rights in Kenya.

[摘要] It is interesting how a specific date and month has come to define the world. In thedawn of the millennium, few people would have thought international politics wouldsuddenly change. It was even harder to envisage that America would be a direct targetof terror groups’ right inside their country in such a huge magnitude, in this age afterthe end of cold war when it was the only super power.The events of September 11, 2001 will forever remain entrenched in history and evenmore so the political events that followed after, since they have redefined the worldand its political ideology. Different states have responded to the attacks differently,springing surprises, twists and turns that have shaped the agenda of the human rightsdiscourse. The response to the attack on the Pentagon and World Trade Centre hasposed a dilemma to scholars in international human rights law, some of them whomhave questioned if this is the end of human rights era.1 This is because of how thehuman rights discourse has been put at cross purpose with the anti-terror efforts thathave been employed.After Al-qaeda operatives crashed three airlines into the Pentagon and World TradeCentre, while a fourth one crashed in a field in Shanksville, this was seen as a directact of aggression on America and President George Bush vowed revenge. On October8th 2001, Bush launched a campaign to track Osama Bin Laden and followers of hisAl-qaeda group, who were responsible for the attacks. The 'war on terror” began thesame day with the bombing of Afghanistan that aimed at toppling the Afghanistangovernment, which supported Al-qaeda. While doing this, Bush placed terrorismabove any other global agenda. It is important to note that the toppling of theAfghanistan regime was through the UN Security Council. When a new governmentwas set up after the regime was toppled, the 'war on terror” entered new frontier.In his State of the Union address in January 2002, President Bush declared that Iran,Iraq and North Korea were 'rogue states” and alleged that the three countries weredeveloping weapons of mass destruction. Bush feared that terrorists would use these chemical and biological weapons to attack other countries, more so Americaninterests and hence measures had to be taken before this happened.He next turned to Iraq which was suspected of having chemical and biologicalweapons and links with Al-qaeda. He vowed to topple the Iraq regime of SaddamHussein on these pretexts.2 These actions led to a lot of international debate, withmany countries urging America not to use force to push its agenda. Specifically, mostcountries were of the view that inspectors from the United Nations Monitoring,Verification and Inspection Commission (UNIMOVIC) should be allowed to inspectIraq to authenticate the claims.3 In addition, many countries felt that for such a war tohappen, the UN Security Council had to pass a resolution allowing the attack of Iraq.Nevertheless, America and its allies went ahead with their plans of toppling Saddam.On April 9, 2003 the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled and he was captured onDecember 14, 2003. However, Osama has not yet been caught.At the same time, the United Nations (U.N.) has passed various resolutionscondemning terrorism and urging countries to enact anti-terror measures that do notinfringe on the people’s human rights. Despite this, the anti-terrorism measuresadopted by many countries have fallen short of the U.N. human rights requirementsand have proved to be a challenge to internationa l human rights law and refugee law.This has led to various scholars arguing that the U.N. charter should be reviewed toadequately cater for the 'war on terror” and the enforcement of human rights whileengaging in these efforts. In any case, it is clear that legal safeguards that were onceviewed as unchangeable are now being challenged. As David Rieff avers, '…thethreat that internal war and terrorism poses to the edifice of international law wouldhave become apparent sooner or later. If anything, September 11 only hastened andfocused the process.”This research report aims to study the implications of the 'war on terror” for theprotection of human rights in Kenya. In doing so, it is noted that even though Kenyahas been a victim of terrorist activities, it was only after America began the 'war onterror” in October 2001 that it started putting up structures to address terrorism. Thus,the main thrust of this research is to investigate the human rights dilemma that Kenyafaces in these efforts includ ing interrogating the reasons for the tensions that resultedfrom the draft Suppression of Terrorism bill 2003 that was drawn up by thegovernment in its effort to fight terrorism. In order to do this, several researchquestions inform the study.a) How has the 'war on terror” shaped the understanding and practices of humanrights in Kenya?b) How has the 'war on terror” shaped Kenya’s approach to terrorism?c) How did the draft Suppression of Terrorism bill 2003 emerge?d) Was the draft bill a result of social struggles and history of the country asregards terrorism?e) What are the human rights concerns that have emerged from the draft bill?f) What are the tensions that have cropped up between protecting human rightsand ensuring national security in Kenya? This will include a study of localcampaigns by the Civil Society and Muslim community against the draft antiterrorbill.g) Why have the tensions come up between the citizens and the government? Todo this, the study will look into the human rights history of Kenya andrelationship between the government and its citizens.h) What has been the impact of anti-terrorism measures on certain ethnic andreligious groups?i) How have suspected terrorists in Kenya been treated while under custody?Human rights as applied in this research report refers to a set of internationally agreedupon principles which have been set down in the various declarations of UnitedNations human rights instruments, African Charter and other legal documents likeConstitutions. Over the years, these principles have continuously been refined andextended to ensure that more people especially the minorities are catered for and havesince been evoked when oppression occurs.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand