Contribution to UN global study on the impact of counter-terrorism on civil society and civil space

Background

Last year, the UN's Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights issued a call for inputs in anticipation of the first-ever global study on the impact of counter-terrorism measures on civil society and civil space, inviting stakeholders to submit relevant data to the special rapporteur's office.

Reports submitted by Solidarity with OTHERS

In this framework, our NGO submitted to the UN the following five reports:

1. National and transnational financial repression on Turkish dissidents: The report sheds light on the financial aspect of the Turkish authorities' sweeping use of terrorism-related charges against the government's peaceful critics who, as a result, end up being included in the government's asset freeze lists on the grounds of combating the financing of terrorism and consequently face undue hindrance and discrimination in their relations with financial institutions, which process the Turkish government's lists without due diligence. Click here to download the report.

2. Targeting of Belgium-based NGOs: The report addresses the Turkish judiciary's politically motivated attacks on several Belgium-based NGOs which are operating in accordance with Belgian and EU law. Click here to download the report.

3. Terrorism-related investigations and trials between 2015 and 2021: The report tackles the staggering numbers of people implicated in the Turkish authorities' terrorism-related investigations and trials between 2015 and 2021, exploring the potential links of causality between this magnitude and the overly broad and ambiguous nature of Turkey's anti-terror legislation as well as the lack of independence and impartiality that plagues the country's judiciary. Click here to download the report.

4. Turkey's misuse of INTERPOL: The report focuses on the Turkish government's abuse of INTERPOL's databases, particularly the Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database where data entry by Member States is not subject to prior compliance review, as a way of circumventing the Red Notice mechanism where most of Turkey's requests against government critics have been rejected by the organization's internal reviewing body on the grounds that they were found to be politically motivated. It explains based on official governmental documents that the Turkish government intends to abuse the SLTD database in order to obstruct its dissidents' freedom of travel as well as to locate these dissidents. Click here to download the report.

5. Wanted lists and transnational repression: The report addresses the Turkish Ministry of Interior's "Wanted for Terrorism" lists, which includes numerous peaceful political opponents of the governments and violates a number of their rights such as the right to a fair trial, the right to presumption of innocence, the right to privacy and the right to security of the person. Click here to download the report.

The UN's global study

Prepared based on the idea that the abuse of counter-terrorism to curtail fundamental rights and freedoms and to curb legitimate activities is not limited to a specific country or region, the global study attempts to measure the magnitude of the abuse in light of experience and data from across the world.

The global study refers to our contributions on pages 51, 55, 65, 69 and 72.

Click here to view the UN global study.