The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has given a cautious welcome to the Criminal Justice (Surveillance) Bill 2009 published by the Minister for Justice this morning (17 April 2009) and stressed that intelligence-led policing, and not the restriction of fair trial rights, is the most effective way to tackle gangland crime.
Speaking shortly after the publication of the Bill, ICCL Director Mr Mark Kelly said:
“This Bill will at last place Garda surveillance on a lawful basis that broadly conforms to Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The need for judicial authorisation of most forms of surveillance is welcome; however, it remains unclear why it is felt acceptable to allow tracking devices to be placed on people’s vehicles on Garda authority alone.”
“In the interests of the protection of privacy, the ICCL urges the Minister to publicly disclose, before the Bill becomes law, the proposed content of the regulations foreseen in section 8(11) of the Bill, in order to ensure that there will be a human rights complaint framework for the use by Gardaí of tracking devices”, he said.
Addressing the wider societal context in which the Bill has been produced, Mr Kelly added:
“Intelligence-led policing of the sort to which this Bill relates, and not the further restriction of fair trial rights, is the most effective way to tackle gangland crime. The ICCL hopes that this will bring an end to the patent nonsense that has been mooted in recent days regarding the expansion of the role of the Special Criminal Court, which would do nothing whatsoever to tackle the problem of witness intimidation.”