The Changing Counter-Terrorism Landscape and Evidence-Based/Data-Centric Responses to the Threat

ASG Remarks

Thank you, USG Vornokov,

Excellencies, colleagues,

Distinguished guests,

I am honored to also address you at this ninth meeting of the Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact Committee.

The focus of today’s meeting – the Changing Counter-Terrorism Landscape and Evidence-Based/Data-Centric Responses to the Threat – corresponds to the Secretary-General’s vision for the United Nations to be a data-driven organization to deliver optimal value for people and the planet.

For human rights, this means leveraging data to advance the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism.

This requires two initial actions.

First, using data, information, and evidence to improve analysis and decision-making along the full spectrum of human rights is vital to ensure that counter-terrorism and PCVE measures are precise and effective. The more than 100 field presences of our Office can play an important role by supporting national and international efforts to this end.

We have practical examples from the field including joint prevention platforms that monitor human rights risk factors and provide early warning reports and evidence and data-based guidance on preventing, mitigating, and responding to emerging crises or threats.

In the context of counter-terrorism, commitment to ground decisions on accurate and relevant data and evidence is essential to guard against the misuse of counter-terrorism measures. This means any allegations of terrorism should be based on credible evidence, and that the human rights impact of counter-terrorism measures should inform the design and implementation of such measures. 

Second, leveraging data for human rights also requires a human rights-based approach to data. Guidance on this has been elaborated by our Office and it identifies six principles—participation, disaggregation, self-identification, transparency, privacy, and accountability – which should inform data collection and disaggregation.

Distinguished colleagues.

When speaking of data action, we must ensure the promotion and protection of that right to privacy, freedoms of opinion and expression, and the principle of non-discrimination are respected. Any counter-terrorism and PCVE response that involves data and information should be placed within this protection framework, under which the collection, storage, type of data, purpose and consequences of collecting and processing data would be analyzed against these rights, providing more robust protection for individuals and groups.

We must guard our privacy rights as it pertains to information about our identity and our private life.

In the context of information collected, especially in the context of security intelligence services and surveillance, important questions are raised about how such data should be protected and whether, when, where, and for what purpose an individual’s privacy could be interfered with.

International human rights law provides that any act including counter-terrorism measures must not be arbitrary, it must have a legitimate purpose, be prescribed by law, be necessary and proportionate and must not be discriminatory. 

If we do not ground the UN’s data action in international human rights law, people are at risk of having their rights violated and their safety and security threatened. Data protection breaches or abuses can lead to physical harm, especially in terrorism and the counter-terrorism context.

My final point concerns the intersecting role of business enterprises and States in this field as also mentioned by Anna already ¹.

Our Office has found that the impact of public surveillance on human rights is further aggravated because data sources are increasingly merged. This can happen by way of combining facial recognition-equipped video surveillance feeds with social media data and government databases, including information on social security, migration, terrorism suspects, arrests or even lists of individuals flagged for political reasons ².

Business enterprises have the responsibility to respect human rights, including the right to privacy. The Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights provides that business enterprises should carry out human rights due diligence to prevent and mitigate actual and potential impacts of their operations.

While data-centric and evidence-based approaches could strengthen the way in which we counter and prevent terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism, it is equally important that we — the UN System, Member States, business enterprises and indeed all members of society — recognize the full implications of data-driven technologies on the right to privacy and all other human rights.

Thank you and looking forward to our further collaboration in this group and beyond.

^1/ A/HRC/39/29, paras. 15-16.

^2/ A/HRC/51/17, para.40.