Phantom Parrot

Last updated
Phantom Parrot
Directed by Kate Stonehill
Produced bySteven Lake
Cinematography
  • Matt Bockelman
  • JP Lewis
  • Ronnie McQuillan
  • Kate Stonehill
Edited byVera Simmonds, Emiliano Battista
Music byNainita Desai
Production
company
Brass Mill Media
Distributed by Tribeca Films
Release dates
  • March 2023 (2023-03)(CPH:DOX) [1]
  • 15 March 2024 (2024-03-15)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom

Phantom Parrot is a 2023 documentary film that documents the ordeal of Muhammad Rabbani when he is arrested at the UK border. It was directed by Kate Stonehill.

Phantom Parrot tells the story of Muhammad Rabbani, a human rights activist who works with people who have been subject to torture and other human rights violations. [2] Rabbani is stopped at the border and asked for the passwords of his electronic devices. [3] Rabbani refuses to give up his passwords and so is arrested under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. [4] Rabbani is the director of CAGE (organisation), who fight against mass surveillance in the wake of the War on Terror. [5] During the film, we learn that Rabbani's stop may have been targeted, as he had documents on his devices relating to individuals who had been tortured and mistreated by the American government. [6] The film explores how individuals can be arrested and imprisoned simply for protecting data that relates to human rights violations.

The title Phantom Parrot refers to a government programme called Phantom Parrot, that was first discovered in a leaked document by Edward Snowden. The policy allows for targeted stopping of people at the border, under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, to download data from their devices. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterterrorism</span> Activity to defend against or prevent terrorist actions

Counterterrorism, also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to combat or eliminate terrorism and violent extremism.

Computer and network surveillance is the monitoring of computer activity and data stored locally on a computer or data being transferred over computer networks such as the Internet. This monitoring is often carried out covertly and may be completed by governments, corporations, criminal organizations, or individuals. It may or may not be legal and may or may not require authorization from a court or other independent government agencies. Computer and network surveillance programs are widespread today and almost all Internet traffic can be monitored.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrorism Act 2000</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Terrorism Act 2000 is the first of a number of general Terrorism Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It superseded and repealed the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland Act 1996. It also replaced parts of the Criminal Justice Act 1998. The powers it provides the police have been controversial, leading to noted cases of alleged abuse, and to legal challenges in British and European courts. The stop-and-search powers under section 44 of the Act have been ruled illegal by the European Court of Human Rights.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Uzbekistan</span>

Human rights in Uzbekistan have been described as "abysmal" by Human Rights Watch, and the country has received heavy criticism from the UK and the US for alleged arbitrary arrests, religious persecution and torture employed by the government on a regional and national level. Amnesty International stated that freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly continue to be restricted, and that relations between gay men are illegal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canada Border Services Agency</span> Canadian agency in charge of border security

The Canada Border Services Agency is a federal law enforcement agency that is responsible for border control, immigration enforcement, and customs services in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Turkmenistan</span>

Turkmenistan's human rights record has been heavily criticized by various countries and scholars worldwide. Standards in education and health declined markedly during the rule of President Saparmurat Niyazov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Turkey</span>

Human rights in Turkey are protected by a variety of international law treaties, which take precedence over domestic legislation, according to Article 90 of the 1982 Constitution. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) was not signed by Turkey until 2000. As of today, however, Turkey is party to 16 out of 18 international human rights treaties of the United Nations. The issue of human rights is of high importance for the negotiations with the European Union (EU).

Human rights in the United Kingdom concern the fundamental rights in law of every person in the United Kingdom. An integral part of the UK constitution, human rights derive from common law, from statutes such as Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights 1689 and the Human Rights Act 1998, from membership of the Council of Europe, and from international law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Qatada al-Filistini</span> Islamic cleric, alleged al-Qaeda member (born 1959)

Omar Mahmoud Othman, better known as Abu Qatada al-Filistini, is a Salafi cleric and Jordanian national. Abu Qatada was accused of having links to terrorist organisations and frequently imprisoned in the United Kingdom without formal charges or prosecution before being deported to Jordan, where he was acquitted of multiple terrorism charges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Directorate General of Forces Intelligence</span> Defence intelligence section of the Bangladesh Armed Forces

The Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, commonly known by its acronym DGFI, is the defense intelligence agency of the Bangladesh Armed Forces, tasked with collection, collation and evaluation of strategic and topographic information, primarily through human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the Bangladesh intelligence community, the DGFI reports to the Director-General under the executive authority of the head of government, the Prime Minister, and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the Prime Minister, the Cabinet of Bangladesh, and the Armed Forces of Bangladesh.

Human rights in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime are severely restricted and considered among the worst in the world. Women's rights and freedom are severely restricted, as they are banned from most public spaces and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven. Taliban's policies towards women are usually termed as gender apartheid. Minority groups such as Hazaras face persecution and eviction from their lands. Authorities have used physical violence, raids, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances of activists and political opponents.

Human rights in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are substantially restricted. The UAE does not have democratically elected institutions and citizens do not have the right to change their government or form political parties. Activists and academics who criticize the government are detained and imprisoned, and their families are often harassed by the state security apparatus. There are reports of forced disappearances of foreign nationals and Emirati citizens, who have been abducted, detained and tortured in undisclosed locations, and denied the right to a speedy trial and access to counsel during investigations by the UAE government. Human Rights Watch states that Emirati laws maintain capital punishment and discriminate against women, migrants and LGBT individuals.

Human rights in Egypt are guaranteed by the Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt under the various articles of Chapter 3. The country is also a party to numerous international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. However, the state of human rights in the country has been criticized both in the past and the present, especially by foreign human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. As of 2022, Human Rights Watch has declared that Egypt's human rights crises under the government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is "one of its worst ... in many decades", and that "tens of thousands of government critics, including journalists, peaceful activists, and human rights defenders, remain imprisoned on abusive 'terrorism' charges, many in lengthy pretrial detention." International human rights organizations, such as the aforementioned HRW and Amnesty International, have alleged that as of January 2020, there are some 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt. Other complaints made are of authorities harassing and detaining "relatives of dissidents abroad" and use of "vague 'morality' charges to prosecute LGBT people, female social media influencers, and survivors of sexual violence." The Egyptian government has frequently rejected such criticism, denying that any of the prisoners it holds are political prisoners.

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides a right to respect for one's "private and family life, his home and his correspondence", subject to certain restrictions that are "in accordance with law" and "necessary in a democratic society". The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe.

Indefinite detention is the incarceration of an arrested person by a national government or law enforcement agency for an indefinite amount of time without a trial. The Human Rights Watch considers this practice as violating national and international laws, particularly human rights laws, although it remains in legislation in various liberal democracies.

Cage is a London-based advocacy organisation which aims to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror. Cage highlights and campaigns against state policies, developed as part of the War on Terror. The organisation was formed to raise awareness of the plight of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere and has worked closely with former detainees held by the United States and campaigns on behalf of current detainees held without trial. Cage was formerly known as Cageprisoners, and is ordinarily styled as "CAGE".

Alkarama is an independent Swiss-based human rights non-governmental organization established in 2004 to assist people in the Arab World subjected to, or at risk of, extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary detention.

Key disclosure laws, also known as mandatory key disclosure, is legislation that requires individuals to surrender cryptographic keys to law enforcement. The purpose is to allow access to material for confiscation or digital forensics purposes and use it either as evidence in a court of law or to enforce national security interests. Similarly, mandatory decryption laws force owners of encrypted data to supply decrypted data to law enforcement.

The Temara interrogation center, also known as Temara secret detention center, is an extrajudicial detainment and secret prison facility of Morocco located within a forested area of Rabat, Morocco. It is operated by the Directorate for the Surveillance of the Territory, a Moroccan domestic intelligence agency implicated in past and ongoing human rights violations, which continues to arrest, detain and interrogate individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism-related activities outside of the Moroccan legal framework.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amal Habani</span> Sudanese freelance journalist

Amal Khalifa Idris Habani is a Sudanese journalist and human rights activist.

References

  1. https://deadline.com/video/phantom-parrot-cph-dox-clip-debut-director-kate-stonehill-ews/
  2. "Centre for Investigative Journalism". tcij.org. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  3. Bradshaw, Peter (12 March 2024). "Phantom Parrot review – cautionary tale of state surveillance and the war on privacy | Film". The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  4. "Heathrow Police Seek Passwords, Activist Refused, Faces Jail". theintercept.com. 23 September 2017. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  5. Weaver, Matthew (16 July 2023). "Cage director banned from France as 'threat to public order' | France". The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  6. Bowcott, Owen (25 September 2017). "Campaign group chief found guilty of refusing to divulge passwords | UK news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-04-02.
  7. "'Phantom Parrot' – The secret state's tool for mass intelligence gathering". declassifieduk.org. 20 September 2023. Retrieved 2024-04-02.