BRATISLAVA, July 19 (IPS) – Human rights groups have called on governments to do more to combat cross-border repression. A series of recent reports have shown that exiled journalists, political dissidents and human rights defenders are increasingly being targeted by autocratic regimes in an attempt to silence them.
They say governments must do more to tackle the repression, which takes the form of online intimidation, surveillance, enforced disappearances, physical attacks and sometimes even killings, to protect the safety of these people.
“We have seen an increase in transnational repression, coupled with the rise of authoritarianism around the world in general. In general, there is a growing awareness of this complex problem among host countries and a willingness to do something about it.
“But there is still more work to be done in some areas and governments must support journalists in exile and recognise the vital importance of their work,” Fiona O’Brien, UK bureau director at Reporters Without Borders (RSF), told IPS.
The scale of the problem has been exposed in a number of reports in recent months.
In February, the human rights organization Freedom House published a report documents dozens of attacks, including assassinations, kidnappings and assaults, carried out by governments on people outside their borders in 2023.
Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and China are named as the main perpetrators. The first known cases of transitional repression by a number of governments are also reported, including the regimes of Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Myanmar, Sierra Leone and Yemen.
According to the group, 44 countries, more than a fifth of the world’s national governments, have attempted to silence dissidents, activists, political opponents and members of ethnic or religious minorities outside their own borders over the past decade. There have been 1,034 recorded direct, physical incidents of transnational repression.
Freedom House said at the time that it was clear that regimes “were not deterred from violating sovereignty and targeting dissidents living abroad.”
Meanwhile, at the end of June, during the presentation a report In her report on transnational repression, Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, expressed her concerns not only about the increase in cases of transnational repression, but also about the response of host countries to it.
“Too often, for political reasons, states are unwilling or unable to protect and support journalists in exile due to a lack of capacity or resources. Journalists should not be treated as political pawns, but as people in need who, at great cost to themselves, contribute to the realization of our human right to information,” Khan said.
Following the report, dozens of governments have joint statement condemn the repression and commit to coordinated action to help those targeted and hold those behind the attacks accountable. But it did not provide specific measures that should be implemented to do this.
Human rights groups say host countries must take concrete steps to address the problem, both within their own countries and to tackle the regimes that commit such acts.
Phil Lynch, executive director of the nonprofit International Service for Human Rights, said such measures not only involve host countries providing comprehensive protection and support to those at risk of acts of transnational repression, but also taking steps to undermine the ability of regimes to target people abroad.
He said that host countries should ensure that they do not support or consent to acts of transnational repression, for example through extradition or refoulement to states involved in the persecution of human rights defenders. They should not supply or export tools or technologies for transnational repression, such as spyware and weapons, to repressive states. They should raise awareness and increase law enforcement capacity to respond to acts of transnational repression. Furthermore, they should publicly condemn, investigate and hold accountable acts of transnational repression, including through sanctions and diplomatic repercussions.
“They should also prioritise human rights in foreign policy and relations, both at bilateral and multilateral levels, and adopt a principled and consistent approach to human rights in all situations, without selectivity and without discrimination,” he told IPS.
But experts say it is not only host governments that can do more.
“Most harassment and attacks happen online. One thing that has to be said is that big tech has been completely absent from . Governments need to hold big tech accountable,” O’Brien said.
“Increasingly, acts of transnational repression are taking place online or are facilitated by technology. Technology providers have a duty to conduct due diligence to ensure that their technologies and tools are not used, directly or indirectly, to restrict or violate human rights, including through acts of transnational repression. Governments should also legislate to require companies to conduct human rights due diligence,” Lynch added.
It appears that some countries are becoming increasingly aware of the problem and are willing to improve their approach to it, O’Brien said, following an RSF report on the intimidation of Iranian journalists in the UK released earlier this year The UK authorities have shown “a lot of interest in how this problem can be better addressed”, while Freedom House has emphasized how President Joe Biden’s administration has made addressing this problem a priority for law enforcement and security agencies.
But research from other groups paints a much less reassuring picture.
A report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) Some host governments not only failed to provide adequate protection measures for those at risk, but actively facilitated transnational repression.
UN Special Rapporteur Khan also warned of host states becoming complicit in “transnational repression, for example by facilitating abductions provoked by the home state”.
Some alleged cases of such facilitation involve apparently stable, democratic, Western states.
Abdulrahman Al-Khalidi, a political activist and well-known dissident, arrived in Bulgaria in October 2021.
He was a champion of human rights and democratic reforms, and fled his home country after the mass arrests following the Arab Spring.
But since crossing the border into Bulgaria and applying for asylum, he has been embroiled in a complicated and, by his own admission, sometimes incomprehensible legal battle. Authorities have refused to grant him asylum and release him from detention in the migration center, despite court rulings in his favor.
He faces deportation to Saudi Arabia, where, he told IPS, he will almost certainly be killed.
Al-Khalidi believes that Saudi Arabia’s secret service is behind Bulgarian authorities blocking his asylum. He says that during interrogation, he was told by agency officials that they were working with Saudi authorities on his case and that Saudi officials wanted him to return to Saudi Arabia. Bulgaria’s state security service has repeatedly said that Al-Khalidi is a threat to national security, and is blocking his asylum and release from detention.
Al-Khalidi spoke to IPS in early July, while on hunger strike at a migrant detention centre near the Bulgarian capital Sofia, where he has been held for the past three years. He warned governments harbouring exiled dissidents and journalists.
“We are living in a time of international unrest where younger generations believe more in anarchism than in democratic principles. This is very dangerous. The blame for this lies squarely with politicians who profit from it and whose actions are contrary to the principles of the state, creating generations that lose faith in both,” he said. IPS UN Office Report
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
