Worldwide, 'War on Terror' Used as Excuse to Oppress, Charge Activists - Yahoo! News

C'mon everyone, all together now:

"WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!"

It is our right to peacefully assemble and petition our government. We plan on doing a lot more of it.

Start messing with our Bill of Rights or rounding us up and a lot of people will get hurt or wake up dead.

Don't push us, Junior!

Worldwide, 'War on Terror' Used as Excuse to Oppress, Charge Activists - Yahoo! News:

NEW YORK, Jan 24 (OneWorld) - Government leaders across the world must stop using anti-terror laws as a tool to suppress opposition movements and deprive ordinary citizens of their due civil and human rights, say international civil society groups attending the World Social Forum in Kenya this week.

'The 'so-called war on terror' is being used by both democratic and repressive governments alike to justify restrictions on civil society activities,' said Kumi Naidoo, secretary general of the World Alliance for Citizens' Participation (CIVICUS), a Johannesburg, South Africa-based coalition of hundreds of advocacy groups.

On Tuesday, in collaboration with the international human rights group Oxfam and the U.S.-based Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), Naidoo's group held a news conference where they charged that many governments were committing human rights abuses and imposing unlawful restrictions on the movement of activists.

From Tunisia to Tonga and from the United States to Uzbekistan, the voices of activists and organizations are being silenced, said the groups' representatives, noting that many governments were trying to justify new security laws as a means to protect their citizens, but in practice, they were using them to create a climate of fear.