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