The Eminent Jurists Panel

Background

2006

 

Why a panel on counter-terrorism and human rights?

With continuing widespread fear of terrorist attacks and a security-dominated agenda, governments are redefining and seeking to bypass well-established human rights and rule of law principles. Terrorism itself puts human rights in peril and states have a duty to protect people from terrorist acts. However, new, and old, counter-terrorism measures worldwide threaten the rule of law and human rights.

The legal and human rights community is struggling to meet this global challenge in an effective and coordinated way. Policy-makers dismiss general statements of human rights principles as unrealistic and the public in many countries seem ready to accept an erosion of rights. Some states have faced cycles of terrorism and counter-terrorism for decades, yet policy-makers are not listening to the lessons of history. Despite signs of an emerging rhetorical acceptance by democratic states that their fight against terrorism should not jeopardize democratic values, there is still little agreement on what this means in practice for the work of the police, the military, anti-terror units and the courts.

There is a need to move from principle to a more sophisticated and detailed exploration of the issues. What are the acceptable limits of counter-terrorism measures? What is the nature of today’s security threats and how different are they to past threats? Do these threats justify changing existing rules of international human rights and humanitarian law? How should laws and policies change if they are both to confront terrorism effectively and respect human rights and the rule of law?

The legal community worldwide must now take a leadership role in articulating how the rule of law can be respected in addressing terrorism in its many complex global and local forms.

To meet this challenge, the International Commission of Jurists launched in October 2005 the Eminent Jurists Panel on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and Human Rights. The Panel has been mandated to consider the nature of today’s human rights threats and the impact of new and old counter-terrorism measures on human rights. The Panel also explored how considered counter-terrorism measures and policies could produce effective results while also assuring the necessary respect for human rights and the rule of law.

The Panel is chaired by Justice Arthur Chaskalson, Former Chief Justice of South Africa and the first President of South Africa’s Constitutional Court and consists of highly respected judges and lawyers of world renown from different regions and legal traditions (for the information about the members of the Panel, see the page "The Eminent Jurists").

In the course of three years, the Panel:

  Listened to past and present experiences of cycles of terrorism and counter-terrorism in a series of national and regional hearings in countries in different parts of the world (see the page "The hearings");
  Met three times in plenary;
  Sought meetings with government and security officials who shape or implement counter-terrorism policies;
  Invited submissions from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) , lawyers, judges, academics, national human rights institutions, the media, governmental authorities and inter-governmental organizations;
  Engaged in discussion with ICJ’s global network (see list of members at www.icj.org) of judges, lawyers, prosecutors and human rights defenders;
  Stimulated public debate on critical issues through the media in different languages;
  Produced a final and detailed report with recommendations on how the international community can best respond to the global challenge posed by terrorism. The ICJ will seek to have the report translated into French, Spanish, Arabic and Russian.

The ICJ Secretariat in Geneva was responsible for coordinating the work of the Panel.

For further information on the Panel, please see the brochure of the Panel below:

Brochure (English)

Brochure (French)

Brochure (Spanish)

Brochure (Arabic)