I. INTRODUCTION

On September 21, 2001, Ahmed Alenany, an Egyptian physician, was approached by a police officer after he had stopped by the roadside in New York City to look at a map. According to Alenany, the police officer questioned why he had stopped in a no-parking zone, asked to see his visa, and discovered it had expired. The police officer also noted two pictures of the World Trade Center in Alenany's car. Alenany was subsequently charged with overstaying his visa even though he had filed for an extension before it expired, and thus, was legally in the United States. Alenany agreed to be deported because the judge suggested that pursuing his case would keep him in jail for many weeks. He was detained for more than five months while waiting to be removed from the country, during which time the government presented no evidence linking him to terrorism. He is now free but still faces possible removal from the United States.

On June 24, 2002, Hassan Bility, the editor of one of Liberia's independent newspapers, and three other journalists were arrested in Monrovia by plain-clothes police and held incommunicado on suspicion of operating a rebel terrorist cell. The Liberian government twice failed to honor a court decision to produce the detainees in court. Echoing the terminology used by the Bush Administration to justify its handling of Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees, the Liberian authorities claimed that Bility was an "illegal combatant" who should be tried before a military tribunal. Judge Wynston Henries, the criminal court judge who ruled that the men be tried before a military court, reportedly claimed that an illegal combatant may not only be a person who carries arms, but also one who "collaborates and means to assist one side or the other." Under pressure from the United States, Hassan Bility was finally released in December 2002. Information Minister Reginald Goodridge told the BBC's Network Africa that he had not been released because of humanitarian concerns, and maintained that Bility was "a terrorist involved in an Islamic fundamentalist war."

In February 2002, in Godhra in the western state of Gujarat, a Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu activists. Fifty-eight people were killed in the attack. In the days that followed, Hindu nationalist groups in league with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) killed over 2,000 Muslims throughout the state. Local leaders and the vernacular press branded Muslims as terrorists while mobs were deployed to systematically destroy Muslim homes, businesses, and places of worship. Scores of Muslim women and girls were gang raped before being mutilated and burned to death. The government charged 131 Muslims under its new anti-terrorism ordinance, but has failed to prosecute the perpetrators of attacks against Muslims that were carried out with extensive state participation and support.

At a time when the media prominently reports the latest arrests of alleged terrorist suspects, these cases show a different human face to the war against terrorism. Just as terrorism targets innocent civilians, so too are innocent civilians becoming casualties in the international campaign against terrorism.

Terrorism is the very antithesis of human rights. Indeed, it is the body of international human rights and humanitarian law-the limits placed on permissible means to political ends-that best explains why such acts are not legitimate acts of war or politics. Such law makes clear that governments have a responsibility to protect citizens from politically motivated violence of this kind and to cooperate internationally to bring to justice the perpetrators of such abuse.

In fighting terrorism, however, governments must also ensure they meet their other obligations to their people by ensuring that counter-terrorist measures respect and do not violate international human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law. As U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has consistently stressed since September 11, 2001, there must be no tradeoff between human rights and fighting terrorism. In the very first paragraph of his latest report on the Work of the Organization, he states: "I firmly believe that the terrorist menace must be suppressed, but States must ensure that counter-terrorist measures do not violate human rights." True security is ultimately about ensuring an environment in which all human rights are fulfilled, respected and protected-this will not be achieved when basic freedoms are undermined, democratic space is closed, and alienation and discontent are channeled into politically motivated violence.

This paper first surveys initiatives taken by U.N., regional, and other intergovernmental bodies in the context of the international campaign against terrorism. In view of the human rights violations being committed in the name of counter-terrorism, it urges the creation of a dedicated mechanism to address the human rights impact of counter-terrorism measures, most appropriately the appointment of a new special representative of the U.N. secretary-general charged with monitoring and reporting on developments in this area. The paper then details human rights violations connected to anti-terrorism efforts in China, Egypt, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Russia, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, and Uzbekistan. It highlights the degree to which the United States and other governments have become muted in their criticism of and have even extended new security assistance and support to some of the most abusive governments worldwide that have become newfound allies in the fight against terrorism.

The human rights framework is not soft on terrorism. It acknowledges that states must sometimes take exceptional measures to ensure public security. But whatever the emergency situation, some fundamental human rights and freedoms can never be suspended or derogated, such as the right to life; the right to freedom from torture and all forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; and the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. In addition, human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights establish that any restrictions on other rights must be, among other requirements, exceptional and temporary in nature; limited to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation; non-discriminatory solely on the ground of race, color, sex, language, religion or social origin; and consistent with the state party's other obligations under international law, particularly the rules of international humanitarian law.

As this document highlights, the campaign against terrorism has led to human rights violations in many countries worldwide. In some cases, governments have enacted new security laws that violate basic rights and freedoms, or have denied terrorist suspects due process and the protection of law. In other cases, the war against terrorism has been used by governments opportunistically to justify the repression of opponents or arbitrary and punitive measures against asylum seekers and other non-nationals.

Protecting human rights during counter-terrorist efforts is more than a legal requirement. It is integral to the success of the campaign against terrorism itself. Terrorism will not be defeated solely by military or security means. By indiscriminately attacking civilians, terrorism breaches the most basic values of human rights. Combating terrorism requires a reaffirmation of human rights values, not their rejection. State repression and human rights abuse closes off peaceful and political channels for political dissent and can channel alienation and grievance into extremism and violence. As the U.N secretary-general told an open debate of the Security Council's Counter Terrorism Committee in October 2002, "to pursue security at the expense of human rights is short-sighted, self-contradictory, and, in the long run, self-defeating."

BACK: In the Name of Counter-Terrorism: Human Rights Abuses Worldwide

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