UK Shelves 42-day Detention without Charge

The House of Lords rejected a proposal to give British authorities the power to detain terrorism suspects for up to six weeks without charge, as urged by Human Rights Watch. In a significant cross-party vote, the plans to extend pre-charge detention to 42 days in a revised counterterrorism bill were thrown out by a vote of 309 to 118, leading the government to shelve the measure. Working as part of a broad civil society effort, Human Rights Watch advocated against the prolonged detention measure over many months-in numerous news releases, interviews, advocacy meetings, op-ed articles, and briefing papers-to prevent the UK government from further undermining fundamental human rights in the name of national security. We communicated with the government department responsible for counterterrorism and with senior opposition party members and key members of the House of Lords. We played a distinct role in advancing a two-pronged criticism of the bill: that it was wrong in principle and dangerous in practice. Our arguments stuck and were clearly reflected in the debate at the House of Lords. In July, we briefed the UN Human Rights Committee about British policies, leading to language critical of the proposal in the committee's concluding observations. We continue to push the UK government to amend other problematic aspects of the bill.