The current Special Rapporteur, Ben Saul, presented his first report, covering the first two months of his mandate. He highlighted the fact that many of the human rights violations identified by his predecessors over the past 18 years have not only not been remedied, but have worsened, making it necessary for States to place human rights at the centre of counter-terrorism efforts.
Among other issues, he pointed out that counter-terrorism laws have been deliberately and discriminatorily misused against political opponents and dissidents, the media, civil society and minorities. This misuse of counter-terrorism measures not only violates the rights of suspected terrorists, but can also inadvertently or deliberately endanger the freedoms of innocent people. Moreover, the absence of an agreed international definition of terrorism has allowed national and regional definitions to violate the principle of legality and many fundamental rights. In this sense, the vagueness of some offences related to terrorist organisations has led to the criminalisation of conduct and expressions that have no direct causal link to terrorist violence and, as a consequence, some organisations and individuals have been abusively listed as terrorists without due process or judicial safeguards.
As regards legitimate non-profit organisations, excessive counter-terrorism sanctions and funding laws have undermined their freedom of association, assembly and expression, as well as humanitarian activities protected under international humanitarian law.
The report also points out that mass and online surveillance have exceeded the bounds of privacy and other rights. In this sense, the Special Rapporteur states that he will undertake new normative work that builds on his predecessor’s emphasis on the human rights impacts of new technologies in countering terrorism. The misuse of covert digital surveillance technology can lead to serious rights violations and there are significant challenges to effective regulation. Following up on the position paper and statement on spyware, the Special Rapporteur will produce a position paper on the human rights harms stemming from spyware.
This report denounces the impact on human rights of political and legal orders, such as, among others, abusive predicate definitions of terrorism; authoritarian political cultures that habitually weaponise security laws against opponents and civil society; the absence of a culture of the rule of law, including due process and an independent judiciary.
Know more
On the Special Procedures on counter-terrorism and human rights
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-terrorism
On the report on vision and priorities
On HRC Special Procedures
https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures-human-rights-council
March 2024