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Scheinin, Martin --- "Impact of post-9/11 counter-terrorism measures on all human rights" [2018] ELECD 159; in Nowak, Manfred; Charbord, Anne (eds), "Using Human Rights to Counter Terrorism" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 92

Book Title: Using Human Rights to Counter Terrorism

Editor(s): Nowak, Manfred; Charbord, Anne

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781784715267

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Impact of post-9/11 counter-terrorism measures on all human rights

Author(s): Scheinin, Martin

Number of pages: 33

Abstract/Description:

My tenure as the first Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, appointed first by the Commission on Human Rights, then by the Human Rights Council (2005–2011), allowed first-hand exposure to the colossal negative and lasting impact that counter-terrorism measures can have on a whole range of human rights, including political, civil, economic, social and cultural rights. Counter-terrorism measures can affect everyone but they have overwhelmingly affected minorities, indigenous groups, political dissidents and human rights defenders. The negative impact of counter-terrorism measures can either be the result of deliberate government policy, which aims to counter terrorism only in name but in fact pursues a political agenda, or be the unintentional consequence of badly conceived national, regional or international measures adopted to fight terrorism. Either way, the effect of these post-2001 measures has been a huge drawback for human rights, and in the space of fourteen years, very little effort has been made to return to a situation that is more favourable to human rights protection. On the contrary, also recent measures adopted by States to respond to a real or perceived terrorist threat continue to affect more and more human rights, such as the right to privacy or the right to not be rendered stateless.