Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights,

It set down strong legal standards on the positive obligations of African states to protect detainees from torture, including access to lawyers, medical personnel and to court upon detention. The case lead to an important decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights finding that the state security courts – which remain in force in Egypt – violate the basic right to trial before an independent and impartial tribunal. In INTERIGHTS and EIPR (on behalf of Sabah and Others) v Egypt before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights concerning three men convicted by the notorious Egyptian 'state security courts' following a sham trial in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on the Egyptian tourist resorts of Taba and Sharm el Sheikh in October 2004.

Singharasa and Sarma v Sri Lanka on torture, denial of fair trial rights, burden-shifting and reliance on evidence obtained through torture and implementation in domestic courts) In a series of cases against Sri Lanka before the UN Human Rights Committee (eg. Older cases from long before the issue became an international obsession in the ‘post-9/11’ space, include

Helen Duffy has been involved in counter-terrorism related litigation for many years. Together this litigation illustrates many of the egregious violations committed in the name of ‘counter-terrorism’ in the past twenty years, the impediments to truth, accountability, reparation and collective learning, and the insidious implications of the spreading reach of the ‘terrorism’ and ‘extremism’ label in the world today. The systematic abuse of ‘counter-terrorism’ to attack human rights defenders, academics, civil servants and others, and the undermine democracy and rule of law, as epitomised by recent human rights cases against Turkey and Kazakhstan.

Across its litigation, projects and publications, HRiP advances a holistic, human-centric and rule of law approach to security and calls for us to learn lessons from the stark failure of the ‘war on terror’.Įxamples of current case work include multiple cases challenging global practices of torture and rendition. A profound and growing challenge to human rights globally stems from the proliferation of exceptional laws, policies and practices adopted in the name of security and “counter-terrorism”.

Counterterrorism, Armed Conflict and Human Rights,