HRC43: Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights

Item 3: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism

4 March 2020

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Thank you, Madam President.

Madam Special Rapporteur,

We thank you for your report. We share your view over the adverse impacts of counter-terrorism measures on civil society actors and human rights defenders. Red tagged, re-branded as “extremist” or “terrorist”, civil society’s voice is routinously stifled in the name of national security.

We are deeply concerned by the adoption of a new antiterrorism law by the Philippines Senate, last week. The Anti-Terrorism Act 2020 seeks to repeal the Human Security Act 2007, legalising extended periods of warrantless arrests, surveillance and arbitrary detentions of suspected terrorists and curtailing the enjoyment of fundamental rights and basic freedoms.

We are particularly alarmed by the vague and overly broad definition of acts of terrorism contained in the bill. In a country deemed to be one of the most dangerous for human rights defenders, we fear that the adoption of this new law may be ill-intentioned and give the government even further latitude to crack down on critics and dissenting voices and to label virtually anyone as “terrorist”. Lists of human rights defenders and organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, church groups, scholars and journalists allegedly acting as a front for the local communist terrorist group, are already being compiled. As you would remember, in 2018 the UN Special Rapporteur on indigenous people Victoria Tauli-Corpuz was also included in on one of these lists.

Madam Special Rapporteur,

The abuse and misuse of counterterrorism measures against civil society continue in Turkey, where a draconian crackdown on dissent is ongoing under anti-terrorism laws. Since October 2019, hundreds of people have been detained including for commenting or reporting on Turkey’s military operation “Peace Spring” in north-eastern Syria. Investigations have been opened against journalists, social media users and protesters accused of terrorism. Peaceful protests have been prohibited under Article 17 of the Law on Assemblies and Demonstrations, which has been widely abused over the past four years to impose arbitrary bans on peaceful protests across the country.

We call for all States, including Turkey and the Philippines, to refrain from abusing counterterrorism measures as a tool to stifle and harass critical voices; to ensure that all national security policies practices comply with international standards; and to immediately repeal all abusive counterterrorism laws.

Finally, we reiterate that the prohibition of torture is absolute and shall not be sacrificed in the name of national security or the fight against terrorism. We call on the Human Rights Council to act upon the worrying relativization of the such prohibition, including by highest officials, as well as on the systematic lack of accountability. When antiterror measures are abused, it is not only human rights that are jeopardized, but also the legitimacy of counterterrorism policing itself.

I thank you.