Remarks of ASG Brands Kehris’ Participation in OHCHR-led side event on National Human Rights-Based Counter-Terrorism Responses

Good morning and good afternoon, excellencies and distinguished guests.

I would like to welcome all of you to this side—those present in-person as well as colleagues joining us virtually. This side event is co-organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, with the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations, and the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), Saferworld, and, of course, the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism.

I’m grateful to all of you for the support and cooperation in organizing this event. I also do like to extend my special thanks to the Kingdom of Spain for co-organizing tomorrow’s High Level international conference and for its support.

It is also our opportunity to express appreciation to the Kingdom of the Netherlands for supporting OHCHR’s project on National Human Rights-Based Counter-Terrorism Responses, the focus of our discussion here today. We hope that this project will increase the understanding of the value and the benefit of human rights in counter-terrorism efforts and, as a result, better integration of human rights in Member States’ and UN counterterrorism entities’ responses to terrorism, counter-terrorism, and crisis situations.

I would like to briefly outline a couple of thoughts on the project—the two main aspects of it:

First, when we designed the project, we were clear that we wanted it to provide governments and the UN system’s counter-terrorism entities as part of the whole UN counter-terrorism architecture of the UN, with practical and accessible tools that can be utilized by States when designing and implementing counter-terrorism strategies and by UN entities in their support of Member States in that regard.

Second, we wanted the project to explore specifically how States include and engage with civil society organizations, human rights defenders, and national human rights institutions.

On the first part on the tools, I would like to make a couple of points.

A human rights-based approach will foresee the incorporation of human rights safeguards into State’s counter-terrorism strategies and responses and, also thereby, discourage the securitization of non-security actors in counterterrorism.

For example, some counter-terrorism approaches require healthcare and education workers to participate in surveillance or assessments of vulnerability to “radicalization”—which can result in unintended effects that both violate human rights and also harm State counter-terrorism goals. On the other hand, on the positive side, other States have introduced procedures for assessing the potential human rights impact of counter-terrorism laws on certain groups. There are examples that require some bodies like the Attorney-General or Minister to report to Parliament where a law or a bill appears to be inconsistent with the country’s human rights obligations. These types of mechanisms, includes the kind of scrutiny that we know more broadly as human rights scrutiny, were done ex ante or ex post on legislation specifically focusing on counter-terrorism (A/72/287, paras. 61-63). They do address the human rights concerns of counter-terrorism laws and are very helpful in that regard.

The tools to be developed in the project are aimed to enhance practical, comprehensive, and multidimensional solutions, including through capacity building and good practices used by Member States in their counterterrorism responses and that also takes into consideration the resolution adopted pursuant to the seventh review of United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

On the other side—on civil society engagement—we have seen that increased securitization of counter-terrorism measures, and misuse of counter-terrorism laws, negatively impact civil society organizations and civic space generally as well as on human rights defenders and national human rights institutions.

Meaningful participation of a range of actors lead to more collaborative and legitimate counterterrorism processes that is anchored in real concerns and draws on the unique insights of affected groups at different level.

I would like to commend the diverse, multi-regional group of civil society organizations that I understand were consulted in the lead up to the civil society workshop this morning. I understand that the outcome document identifies key issues surrounding civil society’s meaningful participation, protection, and mainstreaming of human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Including civil society actors and national human rights institutions as real participants in the decision-making process can improve the design and effectiveness of counter-terrorism responses. Too often, we see counter-terrorism measures misused—as I mentioned earlier—against civil society organizations for their human rights work or for expressing dissenting opinions. We need to find concrete solutions to mitigate the potential negative impacts of counter-terrorism action, including through strengthening participation of civil society and human rights defenders. This serves to improve the effectiveness of counter-terrorism measures. The OHCHR project on National Human Rights-Based Counter-Terrorism Responses focuses precisely on this important interaction between States and non-State actors in counter-terrorism responses.

We have to ask the challenging questions in order to get to the essence that will shape the scope and depth of civic space in any counter-terrorism response—what are the obstacles to include a very diverse set of civil society actors? Who are at specific risk of being left behind or negatively impacted by counter-terrorism measures? Are they represented in the process of developing and adopting counter-terrorism measures? What more can we do to proactively promote their participation in these processes?

I hope that these and many other challenging questions that you have already started to address will be discussed here and will help us to bridge these gaps. We look forward to bringing as many of you on board as the project searches for these types of solutions and tools.

Thank you very much and I look forward to the discussion today.