Terrorist threat mandates Human Rights rethink

In her article "Europe: Choosing Suicide?", Judith Bergman highlights the plight of Europe in the face of the terrorist threat.

"We need urgent, wholesale reform of human rights laws in this country to make sure they cannot be twisted to serve the interests of those who would harm our society." — UK Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, January 2015.

Swedish intelligence deemed him too dangerous to stay in Sweden, so the immigration authorities sought to have him deported to Syria. They did not succeed: the law does not permit his deportation to Syria, as he risks being arrested or executed there. Instead, he was released and is freely walking around in Malmö.

"It would simply never in a million years have occurred to the authors of the original Convention on Human Rights that it would one day end up in some form being used as a justification to stay here by individuals who are a danger to our country and our way of life..." — UK Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, January 2015.

With over 23,000 Islamists now on the UK watch-lists, the security establishment is beyond its capacity. At the same time paradoxically the Human Rights protections in Western democracies sabotage sensible and necessary steps to protect citizens.

To fight the terrorist threat effectively enlightened democracies face the unpalatable but perhaps inescapable dilemma of having to suspend some human rights protections for some of its citizens.