http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/2am-index-eng
Summaries
The past year has witnessed a global drive to push forward national security measures in the context of the 'war against terrorism' often at the expense of human rights. This international climate has threatened human rights protection in the region in a number of significant ways.
The USA continued to deny internationally recognised rights to people arrested in the context of the 'war against terrorism'. Thousands were detained from the war in Afghanistan in defiance of international humanitarian law. More than 600 detainees continued to be held at the US naval base, Camp X-Ray, in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where they were held without charge or legal assistance. The USA refused to recognise them as prisoners of war or afford them other rights under international law. Conditions in Camp X-Ray, and later, in Camp Delta, gave cause for serious concern. US forces also held hundreds of detainees in Afghanistan, or in undisclosed locations.
Many of the 1,200 foreign nationals - mostly Muslim men of Arab or South Asian origin -- detained in the USA during investigations into the 11 September 2001 attacks were also deprived of safeguards under international law. By the end of the year most detainees arrested during initial sweeps had been deported - some to countries where it was feared they were at risk of being tortured - or were released or charged with crimes unrelated to "terrorism".
The security measures enacted by the new government of Álvaro Uribe Vélez exacerbated the spiralling cycle of political violence in Colombia. The breakdown of peace talks in February between the government and the main armed opposition group, the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), deepened the human rights crisis. The main victims of human rights violations, perpetrated by the army, with their paramilitary allies, and armed opposition groups, continued to be civilians. The statistics are chilling: over the year, more than 500 people "disappeared", over 4,000 civilians were killed for political motives, over 350,000 people were internally displaced in the first nine months of the year, and over 2,700 people were kidnapped, by guerrilla groups or paramilitary forces. The government dragged the civilian population even further into the conflict by creating a million-strong network of civilian informers, who are expected to collaborate with the security forces.
"Anti-terrorism" legislation threatened to corrode human rights protection in Guyana and Paraguay, whilst Peru's "anti-terrorism" legislation continued to deny people a fair trial. In Canada, fears increased that people accused of supporting armed Islamist groups were at risk of being deported to countries where they faced a serious risk of torture.
http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/2am-index-eng