scholarly journals RESISTING TRANSNATIONAL REPRESSION: THE DIGITAL SECURITY PRACTICES OF DIASPORA AND EXILED HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Michaelsen
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Transnational Networks ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Transnational Civil Society ◽  
State Actors ◽  
And Behavior

For diaspora activists in transnational networks, digital media play a crucial role to mobilize and advocate against authoritarian regimes in their country of origin. Yet the reliance on these technologies creates multiple points of exposure that state actors exploit to silence and punish dissent from abroad. While research has exposed the technical underpinnings of digital attacks targeting civil society, less is known on how potential targets perceive and respond to these threats. Using more than 50 interviews with exiled human rights defenders and journalists from Egypt, Syria and Iran, this paper investigates risk perceptions and security practices of activists in transnational networks. It shows that rather than on nuanced risk assessment, digital security decisions and behavior are often built on the “imagined affordances” of digital technologies for surveillance and information control. The paper argues that the complexity of digital tools and constantly evolving risks thus only work to aggravate activists’ uncertainty regarding the capabilities of the state actors threatening them, reinforcing the silencing effects of transnational repression. Networks of incident response, support and information sharing, in turn, will help to strengthen the digital resilience of transnational civil society.

scholarly journals Intelligence Sector Reforms in Romania: A Scorecard

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 298-313
Author(s):  
Lavinia Stan ◽  
Marian Zulean
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Intelligence Community ◽  
State Security ◽  
Intelligence Services ◽  
Security Practices ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
Mass Surveillance

Since 1989, reforms have sought to align the Romanian post-communist intelligence community with its counterparts in established democracies. Enacted reluctantly and belatedly at the pressure of civil society actors eager to curb the mass surveillance of communist times and international partners wishing to rein in Romania’s foreign espionage and cut its ties to intelligence services of non-NATO countries, these reforms have revamped legislation on state security, retrained secret agents, and allowed for participation in NATO operations, but paid less attention to oversight and respect for human rights. Drawing on democratization, transitional justice, and security studies, this article evaluates the capacity of the Romanian post-communist intelligence reforms to break with communist security practices of unchecked surveillance and repression and to adopt democratic values of oversight and respect for human rights. We discuss the presence of communist traits after 1989 (seen as continuity) and their absence (seen as discontinuity) by offering a wealth of examples. The article is the first to evaluate security reforms in post-communist Romania in terms of their capacity to not only overhaul the personnel and operations inherited from the Securitate and strengthen oversight by elected officials, but also make intelligence services respectful of basic human rights.

Kyrgyzstan

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica Marat
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Political Leadership ◽  
The Political ◽  
Lethal Force ◽  
State Actors

This chapter, on Kyrgyzstan, demonstrates how diverse and dynamic civil society mobilized in support of police overhaul following the state’s use of lethal force against civilian demonstrators in central Bishkek in 2010. The political leadership pledged to overhaul the police to avoid a repetition of bloodshed. Engaging with a range of NGOs, civic activists, and MPs, the Interior Ministry has addressed reform in a chaotic and unpredictable manner. Civil society actors representing NGOs bickered among themselves, while their demands to depoliticize the Interior Ministry differed altogether from those of the ministry. Nevertheless, the concept paper that emerged following numerous forums was driven by a consensus between a range of nonstate and state actors.

scholarly journals A Rights-Holder View on Human Rights Provisions in Olympic Bidding and Hosting Regulations

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 114 ◽  
pp. 356-361
Author(s):  
Daniela Heerdt
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
International Olympic Committee ◽  
Winter Olympics ◽  
Potential Benefits

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics will be the first Olympic Games for which human rights provisions were added to the Host City Contract (HCC). The Milano/Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will be the first edition of the Games that were awarded with human rights requirements forming part of the candidature process. The inclusion of human rights provisions into hosting and bidding regulations can be seen as a reaction of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the increasing pressure from civil society to address adverse human rights impacts of these events. This essay provides an analysis of the benefits and shortcomings of this development and reveals that from a rights-holder perspective, the benefits are meaningless. More specifically, it argues that potential benefits are cancelled out by the shortcomings and most importantly that there is a mismatch between intended and actual beneficiaries of these provisions.

A National Treasure? The Role of Civil Society in Promoting and Enforcing Human Rights in the United Kingdom

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet Samuels
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Social And Economic Rights

Abstract The article investigates the negative attitude towards civil society over the last decade in the United Kingdom and the repercussions for human rights. It considers this in the context of the United Kingdom government’s implementation of the policy of austerity. It reflects on the various policy and legal changes, and the impact on the campaigning and advocacy work of civil society organizations, particularly those that work on social and economic rights.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document