UN rights chief warning over tackling terrorism 

October 8, 2008
Yahoo News
Original Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081008/ap_on_re_eu/eu_eu_un_human_rights_1

The U.N.'s new human rights chief said Wednesday she would press governments worldwide to ensure they followed international rights standards while tackling threats from terrorism.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay said moves by European Union nations, the U.S. and others to expand government powers at the expense of parliaments and courts was a cause for concern.
Pillay, appointed last month, said it was the duty of states ... to promote and protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
If checks and balances are not adequate, the margins of abuse are high, Pillay said. I caution against such tendencies.
She urged U.N. member states to avoid vague and over-broad definitions of terrorism, and not detain suspects without due judicial process, in an apparent reference to the U.S. practice of detaining suspects at Guantanamo Bay and British attempts to give police the power to detain terror suspects for up to 42 days without charge.
Pillay welcomed a U.S. court order on Tuesday to free 17 Chinese Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. government quickly moved to block the decision in a federal appeals court.
Pillay, a former judge from South Africa, was speaking to a conference commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.