Civil Liberties and Privacy
| Pages | 14-21 |
| Published date | 01 March 1998 |
| Date | 01 March 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027166 |
| Author | Fath El‐Rahman Abdalla El‐Sheikh |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Money Laundering Control —
Vol.
2 No. 1
Civil Liberties and Privacy
Fath El-Rahman Abdalla El-Sheikh
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this article is only to whet the
appetite for discussing the relationship between
globalisation of crime and civil liberties and
privacy. The topic is too complicated to be
thoroughly discussed in a short article at a time
which is witnessing diversified economic activities
emanating from the adoption of policies of dereg-
ulation and steps to facilitate the movement of
capital across international boundaries. Needless to
say, the process of the globalisation of economic
activity has been, to a great extent, enhanced by
the computer revolution which in turn has reached
unprecedent electronic dimensions coupled with a
parallel increase in inventions and new compli-
cated industries, all of which are creations of
human beings in the drive to meet new changes
and challenges. However, not all men are good
citizens adhering to ideal principles and norms to
maintain social integration, prosperity and public
tranquillity. Instead, some people are inclined by
their very nature to dismantle the social system by
resorting to any means for improving their eco-
nomic conditions at the expense of other members
of society by committing illegal acts, especially in
the economic sector. The situation is worse when
the system creates a shield against combating eco-
nomic crime under the pretext of the protection of
civil liberties and right of privacy of the offender
who takes advantage of the instruments which
enshrine such civil liberties and rights.
In the light of
this
short introduction, the author
would like to examine first the rules on civil liber-
ties and privacy both under international instru-
ments, national constitutions, bills of rights and
Sharia (Islamic law); secondly, how civil liberties
and right of privacy could be limited and inter-
preted positively to deprive a criminal who com-
mits an economic crime from pleas based on
constitutional guarantees; thirdly, to dwell for a
while on the situation of the Sudan as a case study;
and lastly, but not least, how international coop-
eration could be achieved to erase the devastating
consequences of economic crime on society by
assisting it to recover the ill-gotten wealth and
gains taken by the criminal and placed in foreign
jurisdictions which provide safe havens.
PROTECTION OF CIVIL LIBERTIES
AND PRIVACY
International instruments
The international and regional charters, conven-
tions,
declarations and covenants on human rights
contain bundles of provisions on the protection of
civil liberties and privacy of individuals and
associations. Thus, Article 2 of the Universal Dec-
laration of Human Rights,1 which is the founding
stone of the International Humanitarian Law, pro-
vides that 'everyone is entitled to all rights and
freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without dis-
tinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex,
language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, property, birth or other
status'.
Such rights and freedoms include: the right
to life, liberty and security of persons;2 right to an
effective remedy; right not to be subjected to arbi-
trary arrest, detention or exile;3 right of full
equality to a fair and public hearing by an indepen-
dent and impartial tribunal;4 right to be presumed
innocent until proved guilty according to law;5
right not to be held guilty of any penal offence on
account of any act or omission which did not con-
stitute a penal offence, under the national or inter-
national law, at the time it was committed.6 The
most relevant provision to our study is Article 12
which provides: 'No one shall be subjected to arbi-
trary interference with his privacy, family, home or
correspondence, nor attacks upon his honour and
reputation. Everyone has the right to the protec-
tion of the law against such interference or attacks.'
Other universal rights and freedoms which are
enshrined in the Declaration include: freedom of
movements and residence;7 right to seek and to
enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution;8
right to own property alone as well as in associa-
tion with others without arbitrary deprivation
thereof;9
freedom of thought, religious
belief,
opinion, expression;10 freedoms of peaceful assem-
Page 14
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