Aggregated News
A deal signed under Tony Blair's government to help the United Arab Emirates build a DNA database of its entire population must be scrapped, human rights and genetics bodies have warned.
GeneWatch UK, Privacy International and the Council for Responsible Genetics said they had "serious concerns" about human rights from the contract signed in 2006 with the UK Forensic Science Service (FSS), which was witnessed by Prince Andrew.
They said the system would allow the Emirates to track every citizen and expatriate and their relatives, including the whereabouts of dissidents.
"It is shameful that a UK government-owned company is helping to build this system of surveillance. The coalition government should act now to scrap this dangerous legacy of Blair's database obsession", said Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK.
The organisations added that the database could be "extremely dangerous" for women in a country where adultery is a criminal offence.
But a spokesman for the FSS told Publicservice.co.uk that the ethical aspect was for the United Arab Emirates to comment on. "We are just involved in the science," the spokesman said...
GeneWatch UK, Privacy International and the Council for Responsible Genetics said they had "serious concerns" about human rights from the contract signed in 2006 with the UK Forensic Science Service (FSS), which was witnessed by Prince Andrew.
They said the system would allow the Emirates to track every citizen and expatriate and their relatives, including the whereabouts of dissidents.
"It is shameful that a UK government-owned company is helping to build this system of surveillance. The coalition government should act now to scrap this dangerous legacy of Blair's database obsession", said Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK.
The organisations added that the database could be "extremely dangerous" for women in a country where adultery is a criminal offence.
But a spokesman for the FSS told Publicservice.co.uk that the ethical aspect was for the United Arab Emirates to comment on. "We are just involved in the science," the spokesman said...