Dealing with Classified Security Information: a Brief Comparative Survey

In New Zealand the Algerian refugee, Ahmed Zaoui, wasincarcerated in a maximum security prison in solitary confinementon the strength of a report produced by the threat assessment unitof the Police.

On 20 March 2003 a Security Risk Certificate was issued bythe Director of Security under Part 4A of the Immigration Act that allows for “persons .... who pose a security risk … where necessary[to] be effectively and quickly detained and removed or deportedfrom New Zealand” on the basis of classified security informationprovided by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.

This information can be considered and its use approved by“an independent person of high judicial standing” (the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security) but “the significance of theinformation in question in a security sense is such that its approveduse should mean that no further avenues are available to theindividual under this Act and that removal or deportation, as thecase may require, can normally proceed immediately”.

There are two principal fora which might be used to assessclassified security information. These are the regular courts, andspecialised outside bodies, such as tribunals. There are also threemain options for providing procedural and substantive advocacy forthe tribunal or court – independent counsel, counsel who haveobtained security clearance, or counsel to parties who must makethe best use they can of their limited access to classified material.