Contemporary Counterterrorism Issues Symposium
University of Minnesota Law School, Room 25
4 November 2019
The Minnesota Journal of International Law and the Human Rights Center invite you to join a symposium entitled “Contemporary Counter-Terrorism Issues”. Counterterrorism law and practice have continued to expand as a pressing issue in international and national law. The full-day symposium will present diverse views on key counterterrorism challenges, positing solutions that can be applied at global and local levels. As part of this endeavor, the symposium will feature panels addressing four contemporary counterterrorism issues: gender issues with foreign fighters and returnees, (de)radicalization, civil liberties and the right to privacy, and transnational issues including state cooperation practices. Speakers include leading academics, researchers, representatives of NGOs, and the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism. The Special Rapporteur will be the keynote speaker, discussing deradicalization and prevention of violent-extremism issues.
This event is free, but registration is required. Please register here!
Panels
I. Civil Liberties and Privacy in the Age of Counterterrorism: Free Speech on the Internet
Speakers:
Krisztina Huszti Orban – Research Fellow and Legal Advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, University of Minnesota Human Rights Center
Diala Shamas – Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights
Alan Rozenshtein – Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, former Attorney Advisor in the Office of Law and Policy in the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice
This panel will analyze issues related to citizens’ right to free speech, in particular free speech on the internet, in light of counterterrorism regulations on internet use. For example,: What are the reaches of legislation and company practice regarding speech on the internet? What are reasonable expectations on privacy regarding internet usage, in particular, internet usage involving the exercise of free speech? What are the problems with the current use of regulation of internet use and free speech? How does this regulation impinge on the right to privacy? What are some solutions to these issues? What are associated surveillance issues?
II. Deradicalization – National PVE/CVE Efforts
Speakers:
Fionnuala Ni Aolain – Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, University of Minnesota Regents Professor, Robina Chair in Law, Public Policy, and Society, Queens University Professor of Law, and Faculty Director of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center
Stephen Tankel – Adjunct Senior Fellow in the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security
Ben Hayes – Statewatch, TNI Fellow
This panel will examine current state practice on deradicalization. Speakers will speak on best practice, current problems with deradicalization (including such issues as racial and ethnic targeting, human rights violations, negative results of deradicalization efforts, etc.), and solutions to deradicalization. Speakers will also address the issue of who should be doing deradicalization: civil societies, state programs, national legislation, etc. The panel will also examine who is left out of current deradicalization programs, such as the question of whether deradicalization efforts only focus on potential ISIS recruits, or do they also focus on alt-right terrorists?
III. Gender and Foreign Fighter Returnees
Speakers:
Thomas Renard – Senior Research Fellow, Egmont Institute
Jayne Huckerby – Clinical Professor of Law for the Duke International Human Rights Clinic at Duke University
Ahmet Yayla – Assistant Professor, DeSales University, former counterterrorism and operations police chief
Candice Ortbals – Professor of Political Science, Pepperdine University
This panel will analyze issues relating to foreign fighters and returnees from a gendered perspective. As states combat the flow of individuals attempting to join terrorist groups and as states regulate the return of said individuals, the results have been highly gendered. Issues examined will include: What are solutions to regulations and policies on FFRs that account for gender? How can these policies account for such discrepancies within genders such as female perpetrators versus women as passive participants? How can a gendered analysis help tackle FFR issues and FFR rehabilitation?
IV. Transnationalism and State Cooperation
Speakers:
Fiona de Londras – Professor of Global Legal Studies, University of Birmingham
Tufyal Choudhury – Assistant Professor of Law, Durham University
Ben Saul – Professor of International Law, University of Sydney
This panel will examine various approaches to transnational and interstate forms of cooperation regarding counterterrorism. The primary focus of this panel will be on the issue of foreign fighters and returnees. For examples: What are state obligations to stem the flow of foreign fighters? What are state obligations to return their nationals from combat zones? What should the relationship between states and non-state actors be regarding counterterrorism efforts?
We hope to see you there!