• E4J University Module Series: Counter-Terrorism

• Module 12: Privacy, Investigative Techniques and Intelligence Gathering

• Introduction and learning outcomes

• Key issues

• • International legal framework
  • Regional and national approaches
  • Key contemporary issues
  • Special investigation techniques
  • Surveillance and interception of communications
  • Privacy and intelligence gathering in situations of armed conflict
  • Accountability and oversight of intelligence gathering methods

• Exercises and case studies

• Possible class structure

• Core reading

• Advanced reading

• Student assessment

• Additional teaching tools

• References

 

Published in July 2018.

 

 

  This module is a resource for lecturers   

 

Core reading

 

This section provides a list of (mostly) open access materials that the lecturer could ask the students to read before taking a class based on this Module.

International/regional legal framework

• United Nations, General Assembly (2017). Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the right to privacy . 19 October. A/72/540.
• United Nations, General Assembly, Human Rights Council (2017 ). Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms While Countering Terrorism . 21 February. A/HRC/34/6.
• United Nations, General Assembly (2013). Resolution 68/167: Right to privacy in the digital age. 18 December. A/RES/68.167.  » In the Resolution, the General Assembly requested that OHCHR prepare a report on the right to privacy in the digital age. It is to examine, in the words of the resolution: "the protection and promotion of the right to privacy in the context of domestic and extraterritorial surveillance and/or interception of digital communications and collection of personal data, including on a mass scale". The submissions received by OHCHR in response are publicly available.
• United Nations, Human Rights Committee (1988). General Comment No. 16: Article 17 (Right to Privacy) The Right to Respect of Privacy, Family, Home and Correspondence, and Protection of Honour and Reputation . 8 April. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1.
• United Nations, Human Rights Committee (1999). General Comment No. 27: Article 12 (Freedom of Movement) . 2 November. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.9.
• United Nations, General Assembly, Human Rights Council (2014). The right to privacy in the digital age: Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights . 30 June. A/HRC/27/37.
• Tayler, Letta (2017). Overreach: How New Global Counter-terrorism Measures Jeopardize Rights. Human Rights Watch. 
• Gross, Emanuel (2004). " The Struggle of a Democracy against Terrorism - Protection of Human Rights: The Right to Privacy versus the National Interest - the Proper Balance." Cornell International Law Journal, vol. 37, issue 1, article 2.
• Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (2013). Freedom of Expression and the Internet . OEA/Ser.L/V/II. CIDH/RELE/INF. 11/13. Washington, D.C., General Secretariat Organization of American States. Pp. 53-79.
• African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (2015). Principles and Guidelines on Human and Peoples' Rights While Countering Terrorism in Africa . 7 May.
• Council of Europe, Parliamentary Assembly (2015). Report of the Rapporteur Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights Pieter Omtzigt, Mass Surveillance . 18 March. Doc. 13734.

 

Contemporary issues     

• Brown, Ian, Morton H. Halperin, Ben Hayes, Ben Scott, and Mathias Vermeulen. " Towards Multilateral Standards for Surveillance Reform." Oxford Internet Institute, Open Society Foundations, Statewatch, Stiftun Neue Verantwortung, and European University Institute.
• White, Michael J.V.  (2013). " A 21st Century Quagmire: Surveillance Law and International Human Rights Norms." Human Rights Research Journal, vol. 8, pp. 1-11.
• Fabbrini, Federico (2015). " Human Rights in the Digital Age: The European Court of Justice Ruling in the Data Retention Case and Its Lessons for Privacy and Surveillance in the United States." Tilburg Law School Research Paper No. 15/2014.
• Lamer, Wiebke (2017). " From sleepwalking into surveillance societies to drifting into permanent securitisation: Mass surveillance, security and human rights in Europe." Global Campus Human Rights Journal, vol. 1, no 2, Special focus: Securitisation.

 

Armed conflict

• Melzer, Nils (2013). Human Rights Implications of the Usage of Drones and Unmanned Robots in Warfare . European Parliament, Directorate-General for External Policies of the Union, Policy Department. EXPO/B/DROI/2012/12. Pp. 1-37.
• International Committee of the Red Cross (2013), " Contemporary challenges for IHL".
• Clark, Kate (2011). " Targeted killings and two worlds in Afghanistan: inside the Takhar attack." Foreign Policy, 11 May.
• " Afghanistan: living beneath the drones." Al Jazeera, 23 July 2015.

 

Accountability and oversight

• Organization of American States (2013). " Joint Statement of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Protection and Promotion of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Joint declaration on surveillance programs and their impact on freedom of expression." 21 June.
• Eijkman, Quirine A.M., and Daan Weggemans (2011). " Visual Surveillance and the Prevention of Terrorism: What About the Checks and Balances?" International Review of Law, vol. 25, issue 3, pp. 143-150.

 

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