Tag Archives: UK
12 June 2013
UK Prime Minister David Cameron has made curbing tax avoidance the central theme of next week’s G8 summit. In May, the G7 industrialized nations agreed on the need for collective action against tax avoidance, and the EU followed suit by promising action against aggressive tax planning used by multinationals to minimize their tax payments, but low-tax Austria is yet to confirm its participation in the scheme.
The promise for collective action comes after widespread public debate over corporate tax minimization policies and the publication of figures suggesting that multinational corporations use tax havens to deny developing economies revenues needed for public services. According to the OECD, developing countries lose three times more money to tax havens each year than they receive in aid. Recent reactions by developing nations, including treaty cancellations by Mongolia, however, are dangerous unilateral actions further stressing the need to reach agreement on how to deal with tax avoidance in the forthcoming G8 and G20 meetings, an OECD representative said to BBC.
Source: The Guardian | Cameron calls in tax havens ahead of G8 summit in June
Source: The Guardian | UK's top companies condemned for prolific use of tax havens
Source: The Guardian | G7 agrees action needed against tax evasion, says George Osborne
Source: The Guardian | Tax havens are entrenching poverty in developing countries
Source: BBC | EU leaders in drive against tax evasion at Brussels summit
Source: BBC | Osborne: G7 agree to target tax evasion and avoidance
Soruce: BBC | Tax avoidance: Developing countries take on multinationals
Source: ActionAid | Tax Justice Policy
12 June 2013
Documents leaked to the press on Friday 7 June on the US-run covert intelligence-gathering operation, entitled PRISM, reveal that the UK security agency GCHQ has gathered secret digital information through the program at least since June of 2010. According to the US National Security Agency (NSA), the service has also been made available to spy organizations from other countries, but did it not specify which ones. According to Reuters, Germany has not received any PRISM data.
The revelation on the NSA operation has triggered criticism in European capitals, including Dutch, German and Italian officials that denounced the practice of gathering secret data from the world’s largest internet companies as unacceptable and illegal under EU laws. Following denials from Facebook and Google that the companies are giving direct government access to their servers, reports suggested on Friday that Israeli companies may have been involved in wiretapping US telecommunications networks, which would allow the NSA to access data through major internet service providers.
Source: The Guardian | NSA snooping: Obama under pressure as senator denounces 'act of treason'
Source: The Guardian | UK gathering secret intelligence via covert NSA operation
Source: Reuters | UPDATE 1-U.S. surveillance revelations deepen European fears of Web giants
Source: The Daily Dot | Does the NSA's PRISM spying program violate EU law?
Source: GIGAOM | Europeans call for answers over U.S. web spying allegations
Source: Business Insider | DID YOU KNOW?: Two Secretive Israeli Companies Reportedly Bugged The US Telecommunications Grid For The NSA
28 March 2013
A UK Court of Appeals rejected an attempt by the UK government to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan, on the ground that states cannot expel a person where there is a real risk that this person will face a trial based on evidence obtained by torture. The Court upheld a ruling from November 2012 by the Special Immigrations Appeals Commission (Siac) that blocked Qatada’s return to Jordan to stand trial because ‘there was a real risk he would be subject to a flagrant denial of justice’. The Siac in turn had upheld the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the case Othman (Abu Qatada) v. the United Kingdom (17 January 2012). The ECtHR found that evidence against Qatada was obtained by torture of his co-defendants and that there was a real risk of a flagrant denial of justice if he were deported to Jordan. The Siac also said the diplomatic assurances obtained by the UK government were insufficient to prove that torture-based evidence would not be admitted in any retrial.
Source: The Guardian | Abu Qatada: Theresa May loses latest attempt to deport Islamist cleric
15 January 2013
On 13 December 2012, it was announced that the United Kingdom (UK) agreed to pay 2.2 million pound to Mr. al-Saadi, a Libyan dissident who was forcibly transferred together with his family from Hong Kong to Gaddafi’s Libya in 2004, where Mr. al-Saadi was imprisoned and tortured.
The al-Saadi family argued MI6 was ‘instrumental in their kidnap’ and claim their rendition was a ‘joint UK-US-Libyan operation.’ Documents saying the UK helped to organise the rendition were found in the office of Gaddafi’s spy chief in Libya after the overthrow of Gaddafi. The UK government confirmed the settlement, but stated there was ‘no admission of liability and no finding by any court of liability.’
Source: BBC | UK pays £2.2m to settle Libyan rendition claim
Source: Al Jazeera | UK pays $3.5m to settle Libya rendition claim
7 February 2012
In its recent judgment in Othman, the European Court of Human Rights held that the United Kingdom could not expel a Muslim cleric suspected of ties to Al-Qaeda to Jordan. The judgment is of interest for our SHARES project, as the Court on the one hand cautions against international cooperation in the sphere of extradition of terrorist suspects – stressing the responsibilities under human rights law of expelling States – but on the other hand urges States that definitely wish to expel or extradite to do so only in close cooperation with receiving States so as to protect against maltreatment and to ensure a fair trial.
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