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Interview with Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin

Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2021

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Abstract

Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin is the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism. She was initially appointed to this position by the UN Human Rights Council in 2017 and was re-elected by member States for a further three-year term in 2020. In this capacity she works closely with States and UN entities to advance human rights protections in some of the most difficult contexts globally. She is also a University Regents Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, and a Professor of Law at the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland.

In this interview, Ms Ní Aoláin discusses her duties as Special Rapporteur and illustrates the current challenges to the humanitarian space in the context of counterterrorism (CT) regulation.

Keywords

counterterrorismsanctionshuman rightshumanitarian exemptionsUnited Nations
Type
Interview
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 103 , Issue 916-917: Counterterrorism, sanctions and war , April 2021 , pp. 11 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of ICRC

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Footnotes

This interview was conducted by Bruno Demeyere, Editor-in-Chief of the Review.

References

1 For more information on the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, see Human Rights Council Res. 15/15, “Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism: Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism”, UN Doc. A/HRC/RES/15/15, 7 October 2010, available at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G10/167/28/PDF/G1016728.pdf?OpenElement.

2 For more information on the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact, see: www.un.org/counterterrorism/global-ct-compact.

3 Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, UN Doc. A/75/337, 3 September 2020, available at: https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/A/75/337.

4 Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, UN Doc. A/73/361, 3 September 2018, available at: http://undocs.org/en/A/73/361.

5 UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights), “UN Experts Call for Decisive Measures to Protect Fundamental Freedoms in China”, 26 June 2020, available at: www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26006.

6 UN Human Rights, “Israeli Annexation of Parts of the Palestinian West Bank Would Break International Law – UN Experts Call on the International Community to Ensure Accountability”, 16 June 2020, available at: www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25960.

7 Particularly UN Docs A/73/361 and A/74/335. See also Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, “The Massive Perils of the Latest U.N. Resolution on Terrorism”, Just Security, 8 July 2019, available at: www.justsecurity.org/64840/the-massive-perils-of-the-latest-u-n-resolution-on-terrorism/.

8 Finland has made its CTC assessment report public on its Ministry of the Interior's website, available at: https://tinyurl.com/52r7uhbw.

9 For the interviewee's assessment of that resolution, which did not pass, see Aoláin, Fionnuala D. Ní, “The Challenges of a New UN Security Council Resolution on Foreign Fighters”, Just Security, 17 August 2020Google Scholar, available at: www.justsecurity.org/72052/the-challenges-of-a-new-un-security-council-resolution-on-foreign-fighters/.

10 See F. D. Ní Aoláin, above note 3, paras 27–29.

11 Ibid., paras 34, 35.

12 Ibid.

13 UNSC Res. 2139, UN Doc. S/RES/2139 (2014), 22 February 2014, para. 7, available at: https://tinyurl.com/cb6n28zw.

14 UNSC Res. 2175 (on protection of humanitarian personnel and UN and associated personnel in armed conflict), UN Doc. S/RES/2175 (2014), 29 August 2014, para 3, available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/778588?ln=en.

15 Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, Impact of Measures to Address Terrorism and Violent Extremism on Civic Space and the Rights of Civil Society Actors and Human Rights Defenders, UN Doc. A/HRC/40/52, 1 March 2019, available at: https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G19/057/59/PDF/G1905759.pdf.

16 Fionnuala D. Ní Aoláin, Human Rights Impact of Counter-Terrorism and Countering (Violent) Extremism Policies and Practices on the Rights of Women, Girls and the Family, UN Doc. A/HRC/46/36, 22 January 2021, available at: www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Terrorism/Pages/Annual.aspx.

17 Available at: www.icnl.org/covid19tracker/.