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Transnational security architecture, civic space and human rights

Our research aims to complement and support nascent civil society and local, activist-led research and advocacy in this area. We will do this by:

• establishing a more substantial evidence base on the establishment, financing and implementation of international counter-terrorism and security norms and their implementation at the national level, in particular as regards:
  • the bodies and agencies involved, including informal and private bodies;
  • the actual or potential adverse effects of those norms and measures on civic space and human rights;
  • the pathways through which those norms (and, in particular, key emerging priorities such as biometrics, travel surveillance and ‘watchlisting’) are generated and implemented and the implications for democratic scrutiny, oversight, accountability and the involvement of civil society;
  • the interaction of the international, regional and national levels in the making of global security law and governance;
• identifying targets, pathways and potential allies for change, in particular by:
  • analysing how emerging priorities in international security governance are or can be used to restrict human rights and civic space;
  • identifying how those international norms shape localised counter-terrorism responses pathways through which those norms are implemented;
  • identifying key actors involved in the generation, financing and implementation of norms and states and/or institutions that may be amenable to/supportive of efforts to counter negative developments;
  • broadening the array of civil society actors aware of and engaged with efforts to counter international counter-terrorism and security norm-setting that undermines civic space and human rights.

The project aims to provide a springboard for campaigning and advocacy that seeks to ensure, at a bare minimum, greater democratic and public scrutiny and oversight of transnational security institutions, with the long-term aim of rolling back and ultimately halting the development of an unaccountable, invasive and harmful global security architecture.