BRITAIN: Britain's current "Asbo-mania" came under fire yesterday as Europe's human rights watchdog expressed concerns about a range of measures introduced by the Labour government to deal with terrorism, asylum seekers and antisocial behaviour.
The concerns came in a report by the Council of Europe's Commissioner for Human Rights, Alvaro Gil-Robles, which again turned the spotlight on the controversial control orders empowering the British Home Secretary to place terror suspects under effective house arrest.
They coincided with the introduction yesterday of new powers under the Violent Crime Bill allowing for the further extension of Asbos and enabling police to bar anyone over the age of 16 from a locality for up to 48 hours if their presence is deemed likely to contribute to alcohol-related crime or disorder.
Mr Gil-Robles's report questioned the naming and shaming of children, and even the definition of antisocial behaviour used to obtain Asbos as he highlighted growing concerns in Britain also about the ease with which the orders are obtained and their scope.
He suggested there should be some form of screening of Asbo applications by a responsible authority as a safeguard "against excessive use".
On the use of Asbos, he commented: "It is difficult to avoid the impression that the Asbo is being touted as a miracle cure for urban nuisance.
"It is to be hoped that this burst of Asbo-mania will quieten down and that its use will be limited to appropriate and serious cases, where no other means of intervention might succeed."
His report followed a visit to Britain last November to investigate compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights.
The commissioner found the formal anchoring of human rights in the machinery of government and the levels of protection vested in the judiciary "impressive".
However the report also observes that the United Kingdom "has not been immune to a tendency increasingly discernible across Europe to consider human rights as excessively restricting the effective administration of justice and the protection of the public interest".
Mr Gil-Robles said he was struck by the frequency of calls for the rebalancing of human rights protections by those arguing that they had shifted too far in favour of the individual to the detriment of the community.
"Criminal justice, asylum and the prevention of terrorism have been particular targets of such rhetoric and a series of measures have been introduced in respect of them which, often on the very limit of what respect for human rights allows, occasionally overstep the mark," the commissioner concluded.
Shadow home secretary David Davis repeated his call for the review and replacement of control orders with a proper judicial process, as Mr Gil-Robles said it was difficult to disguise the fact "that control orders are intended to substitute the ordinary criminal justice system with a parallel system run by the executive."
Mr Gil-Robles said proceedings were "inherently one-sided" and only judges should authorise the orders.