Make a statement on the recent terror attacks in Paris, Beruit, Baghdad and others

Andrew Reitemeyer Public Seen by 213

The board has decided to make a statement on the situation. Concern about the effects on democracy and the disparity on attention to acts by the press.

Andrew Reitemeyer Mon 30 Nov 2015 6:26PM

I have included everyone's points and rewritten some a bit to give continuity of voice

Pirate Parties International condemns, without reservation, the Paris Attacks instigated by the organisation known as Daesh, ISIL or ISIS. We also condemn attacks made on civilians and civilian organisations by any state and non-state agent in recent times, including assassinations by drone strikes.
We are aware of the special poignancy the events in Paris on the night of 13th November evoked in the world as Paris is a cultural beacon and that young people were targeted. That has helped us to decide to make this statement. We stand with our fellow Pirates in France and their statement “If you Want Peace, Prepare for Peace” and we call on Pirates and others to stand against the causes of terrorism, namely the injustices perpetrated on populations for political, strategic and economic gain. Central to Pirate Principles are Human Rights and there can be no preference given in the granting of these by gender, ethnicity, belief or place of birth.
We are saddened that the world’s press reacted differently to the Paris attacks as to other atrocities carried out in other countries. This indicates an appalling attitude that some lives are worth more attention that others. In November [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents,_2015] political attacks in Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Mali, Palestine, Israel, Somalia, Niger, Cameroon, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chad, Egypt and Colorado Springs USA attracted the media’s attention in direct proportion to the number of western victims.
We also warn citizens in every country to be vigilant and wary of governments using these events to further degrade human, civil and digital rights by encroaching on privacy and increasing mass surveillance in the name of enhanced security.
In particular, we oppose any laws intended to institute, continue, or expand current mass surveillance practices which have proven to be ineffective and which constitute violations of human rights. The perpetrators of the events in Paris were on surveillance lists, so surveilling more people will not help
In order to prevent such attacks in the future is more focused police work. Funds expended on mass surveillance are counter-productive as they reduce funds available for solid police investigations and for targeted surveillance.
It is time to end the current misleading rhetoric and to recognize that events such as those in Paris are crimes that must be combated as would be other crimes, such as non-politically motivated mass shootings and violent bank robberies. To equate such crimes to war is to mischaracterise them, and this leads to the wrong methods being chosen to combat them, such as mass surveillance, unjustified detentions, torture, and assassinations. We see this with the house arrest of climate change activists by the French government during the COP21 talks
Such means are ineffective and must not be used by democracies.
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