Ending CounterTerrorism as we know it

hello

i’m fenulia nielan professor of law at

the queen’s university of belfast

and the united nations special reporter

on protection and promotion of human

rights and fundamental freedoms while

countering terrorism

and today i’m going to talk about the

end of counterterrorism as we know it

so counterterrorism is not new and

neither is terrorism

states have long struggled to address

the causes

consequences and harms that result from

terrorism

not least because they have strained to

find an agreed global definition of

terrorism

but in the smoldering ashes of the twin

towers

and the ruins of the u.s pentagon on 9

11

a new era of global counterterrorism was

born

some of that was immediately visible in

the u.s

invasion of afghanistan and the clear

articulation

of a need for accountability and justice

for the victims

other pieces of it including the now

maligned discredited war on terror

as well as the grim policies of

rendition and torture

best captured by the images of orange

jumpsuits and men in cages

illuminated the dark dark side of

counter-terrorism

it’s alongside these images that a more

profound

global shift was taking place it was a

deep

and seismic shift as the united nations

states and regional bodies

embraced global counterterrorism

and the question is what has that

embraced delivered us

well it’s brought us 20 years of unju

enduring and unending violence it has

emboldened and enabled authoritarianism

and undermined democracy from within

it has allowed states the liberty to

define

terrorism on their own terms without

interference

thus making the humanitarian the civil

rights activist

the echoer here the women’s rights

defender

a terrorist human rights protection is

under severe and undulating

strain and counter-terrorism has been an

active and central participant in that

outcome

civicus a leading human rights

organization estimates that civic space

is restricted or impaired

in 111 countries in 2019

300 human rights defenders were killed

including a rising number of women human

rights defenders

these short snapshots are not generic

they’re intimately connected with

and sustained by national security

practices

and the use of counterterrorism measures

as a normalized

exception across the globe

they are exemplified in stories

of women’s human rights activist lujan

al-haflui charged with terrorism because

she claims

saudi arabian women have universal human

rights including the right to drive

seen in the arrest and detention of

three human rights

defenders uh in egypt from

a famous and old egyptian human rights

organization called the egyptian

initiative

for personal rights arrested for

terrorism because they hosted foreign

diplomats and briefed them

on their human rights work in that

country

it is evidenced in the abandonment of

hundreds of children in camps in

northeast syria

branded as terrorist affiliates because

their parents

are believed to have been affiliated

with isis

counterterrorism is not making us

more free and more secure but operating

as a convenient cover for the systematic

violation of human rights

across the globe

so let’s inspect this global

counterterrorism

architecture a little more closely to

understand it a little better

after 9 11 the united nations created a

counter-terrorism committee

serviced by a special political mission

the counter-terrorism executive

directorate

to regulate global counter-terrorism

these bodies are fueled by multiple

security council resolutions

that have built a global regulatory

framework on terrorism

that includes literally everything from

financing to biometrics

borders to criminal prosecution

surveillance to airline passenger

information

in addition in 2017 the united nations

established

an office of counterterrorism an

innocuously named

coordination mechanism yielding an

exceptional budget

and increased capacity and power

to provide counter-terrorism support and

solutions

to almost every problem including those

in my view that should in reality be

left where they are

well outside counter-terrorism including

education

health children’s rights development and

women’s rights

this growing expanding and powerful

counterterrorism architecture within the

un

is both a human rights light and a civil

society

free zone despite all of the evidence

that tells us that human rights and the

rule of law must be at the

heart of security strategies in order to

be successful

in the long term and embedded in the

long term

states and the united nations have at

best treated

human rights as that unwelcome cousin at

a wedding

or at worst disinviting human rights

actors from the counter-terrorism party

so the question is what do we do

wishing good will on human rights will

not make human rights magically appear

in the global counter-terrorism

architecture

as well as in its day-to-day programming

and without a commitment to

fundamentally undoing

and revisioning the existing

counter-terrorism architecture

and the strategy we have we are all

facing and watching

rome burn what does this mean in order

to change it

it means reimagining security and

counter-terrorism for the 21st century

i think we need to do four things the

first

is to re-think security fundamentally

understanding at a visceral level the 20

years of human rights-free

counter-terrorism has not worked

and may have been extraordinarily

counterproductive

and more of the same will not serve us

well in the future second we need a

serious debate

about the current size effectiveness

and the added value of the counter

terrorism architecture

as it currently is constituted and

paid for and to assess

whether it’s necessary in the short term

we need remedial action that would which

is number three

which would involve establishing a

standalone and adequately funded

human rights oversight entity within the

global

counterterrorism architecture and

ensuring

that it’s adequately supported finally

and fourthly counterterrorism without

the involvement of civil society

is a policy and a practice so devoid

of meaningful substance with the

implementation

of human security on the ground that it

is barely worth talking about

and why should we undo after all of this

argumentation why should we undo the

global counterterrorism architecture

because first of all

it’s not working in fact we don’t really

know much about what it does because we

haven’t

paused in 20 years to evaluate it

secondly because as those of us who have

lived and worked

in northern ireland know undoing

violence

and the underlying issues that propel it

is deeply painful and complicated

long-term work and finally

we should undo it because we can do

better

and doing better means integrating the

rule of law

and human rights at every step this

means at a minimal

that we clearly say defending human

rights

is not terrorism defending women’s

rights

is not terrorism and abandoning children

to life in sub-human conditions

in the camps of the arid deserts of

north east syria

diminishes us all and makes us less safe

20 years after 9 11 it’s beyond

time to end counter terrorism and as we

know it

to open up and refresh our toolkits and

to recognize that quick fix solutions to

complex problems don’t work

and that only when we place the dignity

and value of the human

person at the beating heart center

of what we do will we be secure

you