background
In 2010, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, the Working Group on arbitrary detention and the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances produced a unique joint study on global practices in relation to secret detention in the context of countering terrorism (A/HRC/13/42). The Study described the international legal framework applicable to secret detention, explaining and condemning the wide range of human rights violations that follow from secret detention, identifying States responsible for individual and collective acts of secret detention, and concluding with specific and concrete recommendation to remedy past violations and prevent future harms in counter-terrorism contexts.
Over two decades of impunity have followed from the events which gave rise to the Study. In 2022, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, presents her annual report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/49/45) which addresses the ongoing human rights violations in the name of countering terrorism across the globe enabled and facilitated by the failure to implement the 2010 recommendations made by the collective Special Procedure mandates. New modalities of transfer across borders have developed, circumventing required legal protections including non-refoulement; mass detention without legal process has been normalized by certain States; and exceptionality in trial process involving charges of terrorism remains entrenched.
The evolution of practices from secret detention to transnational transfer in counter-terrorism contexts continues to be marked by an abject lack of adherence to fundamental human rights norms, thin lines of judicial oversight, meagre to non-existent legal and/or political accountability, targeting of religious and ethnic minorities, and a high degree of tolerance by democratic and non-democratic States alike for the subversion of the rule of law to enable persons to be rendered to jurisdictions where they have a high likelihood of being subjected to arbitrary detention, surveillance, and torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
The permissive environment created for human right ‘lite’ counter-terrorism since 9/11, the growth of the global counter-terrorism architecture, the ‘privatization’ of counter-terrorism and the weakening of national oversight mechanisms have all contributed to the current status quo. The ultimate victim of the entrenched practices of secret detention has been the ‘rule of law’.
Only meaningful and sustained recommitment to human rights compliant counter-terrorism will start to undo the damage done, reverse the rule of law harms and undercut the production of conditions conducive to terrorism, which are sustained and fed by these practices.
OBJECTIVE
This event, organised on the margins of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council, aims to restart the dialogue with experts, States and civil society launched in 2010 with the presentation of the report and expanding the reflexion on the human rights violations enabled by the new practices of secret detention in countering terrorism, i.e. torture, violation of non-refoulement, arbitrary detention and deprivation of fundamental rights while countering terrorism.
The event is an invitation for identification of trends and reflexion on envisaged solutions, including those proposed in the 2022 report. It also aims at renewing the call to States responsible for these grave human rights violations. for accountability, reparation, and transparency further to their international obligations. It reflects on the work of the multiple mandates represented at the side-event in the intervening years since 2010, and highlights the overlap and commitment of all the Experts to seek justice and accountability in this arena.
Panelists
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism;
Elina Steinerte, Chair, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention;
Sorcha MacLeod, Chair, Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination and;
Luciano Hazán, Chair, Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
moderator
Keith Krause, Director, Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding, Graduate Institute, Geneva
registration
The event will be conducted in a hybrid mode in English only. No interpretation is available.
Participants are kindly requested to register below to attend the event online. The Webex link will be sent to registered participants prior to the event. In-person attendance is limited due to restrictions in place at the venue. Advance questions to panelists can be sent via the event registration form.
organisers
This event is organised by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, with the support of the Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding (CCDP) at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
