The Role Of Human Rights In Countering Violent Extremism

3advocacy. Objections to restrictions onindependent non-violent civil society activistsshould be on the agenda of every bilateralmeeting until the country’s crackdown on humanrights defenders is ended.Local civil society groups and other communitybased stakeholders should be free to accessresources from domestic and internationalsources to counter violent extremism anddevelop programming designed andimplemented by those local groups.U.S. EXPORT CONTROL OF ARMS ANDOTHER EQUIPMENTU.S. government officials should conduct acomprehensive assessment of American salesof military and law enforcement equipment inorder to ensure U.S. technology is not enablingthe repression of civilians and thereby fuelingthe grievances on which violent extremismfeeds.The Defense Department should insist that allfuture training of security force personnel inethnically and religiously diverse countriesshould include proportionate representation ofminority service men and women.U.S. government officials should enhance theexport control process by strengthening existingrestrictions and providing more funding formonitoring of the use of weapons and otherequipment after sale.LEAHY LAWThe U.S. government should enhance theimplementation of the Leahy Law so that it canbe more effective ensuring that U.S.counterterrorism assistance does not supportsecurity forces engaged systematic violations ofhuman rights.U.S. government officials should invest inremediation procedures to retrain, re-evaluate,and eventually restore access to units deniedassistance under the Leahy Law vettingprocess.COUNTER-THREAT FINANCEThe U.S. government should modernizecounter-threat finance to increase pressure onstate supporters of violent extremist groups andpromote inter-state cooperation to halt supportfor those groups from private individuals andinstitutions.Where disclosure would not jeopardize efforts toprevent terrorism or cut off funds to terroristgroups, the U.S. government should confrontpartner nations with information on their role inenabling or actively financing violent extremists,through U.S. diplomatic channels, and holdpartner governments accountable.The U.S. government should urge reform ofcounterterrorism finance tools such as theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF) to ensuregovernments do not use these tools as ajustification for actions that crack down onlegitimate civil society organizations and politicalexpression.The State Department should support the fightagainst corruption by vigorously implementingPresidential Proclamation 7750.Country ExamplesThe following countries are examples of statesthat silence opposition voices, attackindependent NGOs and human rightsdefenders, and commit other human rightsviolations in the name of countering violentextremism.BahrainBahrain is among Washington’s most repressiveallies. The King’s family controls thegovernment and judiciary in Bahrain. The King’sH U M AN R I G H T S F I R S T

4uncle has been the country’s unelected primeminister since 1971 and through him the Kingmakes all cabinet appointments. The King hasthe authority to amend the constitution andappoints all judges by royal decree. The alKhalifa family members generally fill about halfof all ministerial slots, including those related todefense, internal security, and foreign policy.The country’s majority Shi’a sect isunderrepresented in the cabinet and othergovernment posts, notably in the securityservices where they serve mainly inadministrative functions, if at all.SECURITY FORCES’ REFORMThe security forces are almost exclusivelydrawn from the Sunni sect, either from the localBahraini community or, in the case of police,increasingly from recent arrivals from Yemen,Syria, Pakistan, or a number of other countries.Many locals view the police not as protectors oftheir security or their rights but as agents ofrepression who often do not understand theirculture or context.While there has been some recruitment todiversify the police service, a failure to embarkon a genuine overhaul of the Bahrain police andmilitary to better reflect the communities theyserve leaves many Shi’a distrustful of thosecharged with their protection.The lopsided sectarian makeup of securityforces hampers stability in Bahrain, thusundermining U.S. national interests in thecountry and the region. More than 100 menfrom Bahrain are reported to have volunteeredfor ISIL, including a former police lieutenant whoappeared in a video urging Bahraini securitypersonnel to join him. But, leading human rightsactivist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to sixmonths in jail in January 2015 for tweeting that“many #Bahrain men who joined #terrorism &#ISIS came from security institutions and thoseinstitutions were the first ideological incubator.”CIVIL SOCIETYThe release of political leaders from prison—asPresident Obama urged in May 2011, but hasnot mentioned since—would help restoreinternational confidence in the reform process.So would an end to the targeting of civil societyfigures.In 2011, several prominent political leaderswere jailed and still remain in prison. In jail nowis Ali Salman, leader of the main oppositiongroup Al Wefaq who was sentenced to fouryears on political charges. The leader of theBahrain Teachers Association, Mahdi AbuDeeb, is also serving five years and wassentenced after being tortured and subjected toan unfair trial. Prominent human rights defenderAbdulhadi Al Khawaja was subjected to anunfair trial and is serving a life sentence for hispart in the 2011 protests. The release of theseand other leaders of political and civil societygroups is an important path to political stabilityin Bahrain.The U.S. embassy sent trial observers to thesemen’s trials and often sends trial observers toattend the higher-profile, politically-connectedtrials in Bahrain. Unfortunately the U.S.government never publicly states afterwardswhether, in its view, the trials met internationalstandards. Several human rights defendershave raised their concern to Human Rights Firstabout this silence, and others have read it as anendorsement of the unfair criminal process.EgyptEgypt remains important to U.S. nationalsecurity interests—it’s part of the alliancefighting against ISIL and is battling aninsurgency in the Sinai that worries severalcountries in the region, including U.S. ally Israel,to name just the current front burner issues—but the increasingly authoritarian Sisi regime isdestroying the political opposition, consolidatingH U M AN R I G H T S F I R S T

5control over the institutions of government, anddriving Egypt into an uncertain future offestering internal conflict and polarization. TheMuslim Brotherhood leadership is largely inexile or in prison. Liberal opposition voices,independent NGOs, and human rightsdefenders are attacked.RESTRICTED CIVIL SOCIETYEgypt’s civil society has faced a deepeningcrisis. The case against former PresidentMubarak’s part in the killing of hundreds ofprotestors in early 2011 was dropped onNovember 29, 2014, which was seen as asymbolic exoneration of the regime againstwhich tens of millions of Egyptians rose up inJanuary and February 2011. The ruling addedto the impression that the judiciary is swayed bypolitical preferences, further undermining therule of law and strengthening a culture ofimpunity for those who attack governmentcritics, including human rights activists andother dissidents.On November 26, 2014, civilian courtssentenced 78 children to between two and fiveyears in prisons for taking part in pro-MuslimBrotherhood protests, adding to the thousandsof people already jailed in mass trials which theUnited Nations describes as “unprecedented inrecent history”.President Sisi approved an anti-terrorism lawthat grants the government blanket power toban groups on sweeping, loosely definedcharges including disrupting public order.On November 16, 2014, five student protestorswere referred to a military court because theiralleged damage to university propertyconstituted an attack on a “vital state institution”.Theirs was the first case referred under a newdecree (Law 136 of 2014) issued at the end ofOctober, putting all “public and vital facilities”under military jurisdiction for two years. Thismeans that any crimes alleged to have takenplace at such places (including universities andfactories) can be prosecuted by military courts,expanding the growing jurisdictional scope ofthe military court system even further.Egypt’s 2002 Law on Associations, or Law 84,prohibits NGO engagement in “unauthorizedactivities.” It enables the government to shutdown any group, freeze its assets, confiscate itsproperty, decide who is on its governing board,block its funding, and deny it permission toaffiliate with international organizations. The lawexpressly authorizes the government to interferein the internal affairs of associations.The law includes vague grounds for dissolution,which include, “Threatening the national unity orpublic order or public attitude.”Following the November 10, 2014 deadline forNGOs to register under this repressive lawgoverning their operations or face closurepassed without raids on their offices or thefurther detention of human rights defenders, civilsociety figures and their work remain vulnerableand many expect their organizations to beforced to close, and fear arrest. Some humanrights defenders are already in jail, while otheractivists have left the country after receivingdeath threats or hearing that they are on a list ofpeople targeted for arrest. More repressivemeasures are threatened.New penalties for breaking the law, passed inSeptember 2014, allow for crippling fines, life inprison, and in certain cases the death penalty.KenyaKenya has yet to fully recover from large-scaleviolence following the 2008 election, whenaround 1,300 people were killed—includinghundreds by the police—and half a million weredisplaced during a six-week period. Kenya alsohosts around half a million refugees fleeing warin Somalia.H U M AN R I G H T S F I R S T

6The United States should strengthen andsharpen its efforts to support Kenya. Areinvigorated approach would both improve thelives of Kenyans and serve U.S. interests bycombating violent extremism. The U.S.government should take steps to promotegreater stability in Kenya and the region.Kenya’s high unemployment and povertyrates—fueled by corruption—threaten thecountry’s stability and help drive disillusionedyouth to join al-Shabab and other extremistgroups.CRACKDOWN ON CIVIL SOCIETYThe 2013 Public Benefit Organizations (PBO)Act, a law designed to regulate and protect civilsociety, has yet to be implemented. On thepositive side, parts of the Kenyan judiciaryremain defiantly independent of governmentinterference.Some organizations have already beentargeted. Within days of the April 2015 terroristattacks on Garissa University that left 148people dead, Kenyan authorities listed 85entities “suspected to be associated with” alShabab, a terrorist group with origins inSomalia.The list included the internationally respectedhuman rights NGOs Muslims for Human Rights(Muhuri) and Haki Africa. Both are known fortheir outspoken criticism of Kenya’s policeforces, particularly of abuses police havecommitted in the name of countering terrorism.The government froze the bank accounts ofeach. Hussein Khalid, chief executive officer ofHaki Africa, was among the activists inattendance at February’s White House Summiton Countering Violent Extremism. In June, thetwo groups won a court injunction in Kenyarejecting the terrorist designation, but their bankaccounts remain frozen.Mwangi told Human Rights First that he hasreceived death threats, and he was arrestedagain on July 1. Human rights defenderscomplain of mistreatment by the police and thecourts. For example, the courts have beenincreasing bail fees of those arrested forpeaceful protests, activists say.The 2014 State Department country reports alsonoted that in Kenya, “Less-established NGOs,particularly in rural areas, reported harassmentand threats by county-level officials and securityforces. Human rights activists claimed securityforces conducted surveillance of their activities,and some reported threats and intimidation.”Kenya’s efforts at countering extremism arefailing partly because of a lack of cooperationwith civil society. Muhuri Executive DirectorHassan Abdi Abdille said, “This government willnever win the war on terrorism because of alack of public participation. If the elite like usisn't allowed to participate how will the commonpeople?”CORRUPTIONIn 2006 Senator Obama spoke at NairobiUniversity and told his Kenyan audience that thecountry was facing a corruption crisis, that“corruption erodes the state from the insideout, sickening the justice system until there is nojustice to be found, poisoning the police forcesuntil their presence becomes a source ofinsecurity rather than comfort.”Local human rights defenders working in someof Nairobi’s poorest areas told Human RightsFirst about the everyday police bribery thatdestroys trust in the rule of law. There’s a roughprice list for those arrested to pay their way outof trouble, with a drunk and disorderly arrestcosting around Kenya Shillings 2,000 (US 20)and Ksh10,000 for robbery with violence. Thesesums—in a country where 46 percent of peoplelive on less than a dollar a day—areastronomical.The problem of bribery extends to policing in thename of counterterrorism. An experiencedMombasa photojournalist told Human RightsFirst about a general lack of trust in theprofessionalism of police charged withcounterterrorism work: “There are cases of theH U M AN R I G H T S F I R S T

7police targeting and shooting the wrong personthrough mistaken identity, and reports of[terrorist] suspects being able to bribe their wayout of custody.”POLICING IRREGULARITIESThere is low public confidence across thecountry in the Kenyan security forces’ ability toprevent further attacks. Undermined by a lack ofprofessionalism, corruption, and impunity fortheir own abuses, Kenya’s police needs urgentreform. According to the 2014 State DepartmentKenyan country report, “Police were largelyineffective, and there was a public perceptionthat police often were complicit in criminalactivity. Police incompetence and complicity incriminal activity contributed to an increase incrime, especially in Nairobi. Poor casework,police incompetence, and corruptionundermined successful prosecutions; theconviction rate was between 13 and 16percent .Police officials resisted investigationsand jailed some human rights activists for goingto a police station to make a complaint.” It notedtoo that, “Police frequently used excessive forcewhen making arrests,” and “frequently arrestedand detained persons arbitrarily.Overwhelmingly, victims of arbitrary arrest werepoor young men.”Policing problems are deep and widespreadacross the country, ranging from pettycorruption to poor standards of recruitment andtraining. Kenya’s 2012 Prevention of TerrorismAct is vaguely worded and criminalizesindividuals for being members of designatedterrorist entities regardless of their specificactions. There is no domestic legal definition ofterrorism in Kenyan law, and counterproductivepolicing methods aimed at Muslim communitiesare fueling the sort of extremism they areintended to prevent.Muslim leaders complain of widespreadharassment and say the police are too ready tolink the whole community to al-Shabab. “Everytime people see one of these massacres—nosane person celebrates that,” said KhelefKhalifa, Chair of the Mombasa-based NGOMuhuri. “But the government can't succeed infighting terrorists if it alienates Muslims.”He says the police harass Muslims, that theyare “90 percent more likely” to arrest Muslimmen, who they then exploit for bribes. “The lasttwo years have been hell for the Muslimcommunity,” said Khalifa.The Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) has received 50 million from the U.S. government and isaccused by Muhuri of torture and a string ofextra-judicial executions. “Sometimes they wantto arrest someone—why not go to where heworks or pick him up during the daytime if he’snot in hiding? They come at night, raidinghouses, shooting up the place, hurting people. Itbreeds bad blood with the Muslim community,”said Khalifa.Kenyan authorities accept there is a problem,and the Kenyan Independent Policing OversightAuthority (IPOA) regularly condemns policeabuses, reminding the authorities that, “unfairpolicing shapes the view of police as biased anduntrustworthy. It generates reluctance tocooperate with police officers, which in turnundermines efficiency in profound ways. IPOAis confident that that is not the image that anincreasingly professionalized and accountableNational Police Service would wish to foster inthe minds of the public.”Saudi ArabiaThe kingdom is now experiencing anauthoritarian winter at home and encouragingone abroad while enabling radical clerics topromote sectarian violence throughout theregion. These are serious challenges whichimpede the United States from achieving theobjectives of its military campaign against ISILand which work against American interests inmany parts of the region.H U M AN R I G H T S F I R S T

8Riyadh has taken advantage of this newsecurity environment to implement draconianregulations on countering terrorism thatcriminalize and deter peaceful dissent. Thesenew laws seem tailored to obstruct thelegitimate activities of independent human rightsactivists and have been used accordingly.Meanwhile, hardline clerics are granted impunityby the state to propagate the sorts of hatredagainst other sects and religions that encourageSunni sectarian extremism and legitimizeterrorism by ISIL, al Qaeda, and other suchgroups.Riyadh is continuing to promote extremistideologies that underpin recruitment for terroristorganizations such as al Qaeda and ISIL onregional and global levels.Saudi authorities are promoting a renewedwave of authoritarianism and intolerance innumerous parts of the Middle East. SaudiArabia has been in the lead of a group of“counter-revolutionary powers” who have “rolledback the electoral and participatory gains of theArab Spring in Egypt just as they clamped downon protest movements within the Gulf itself.”Although it stands opposed to Bashar alAssad’s dictatorship in Syria, it has engaged inthe Syrian conflict as part of its rivalry with Iranin a manner that has contributed to the elevationof sectarianism between Sunni and Shi’iteIslam. The ruinous influence of heightenedsectarianism has been a major contributor tomounting instability in the Gulf, the Levant, andSouth Asia.CIVIL SOCIETYSunni and Shi’ite advocates of equal rights forShi’ite citizens of Saudi Arabia, such as Mikhlifal-Shammari and Fadhel al-Manasif, have beenconvicted and jailed. In the last year, at leastfour prominent lawyers who called for greateraccountability by the Ministry of Justice havebeen convicted on questionable charges fortheir activism.Many non-violent activists, like women’s rightsactivists Looujain Hathloul and Maysa alAmoudi, have had their trials sent to SaudiArabia’s terrorism-focused Specialized CriminalCourt, where they receive even harshersentences for nonviolent activities than theywould have before ordinary criminal courts. Newlaws are having a chilling effect upon peacefuldissent and stifling much-needed civil societymobilization.DOUBLE STANDARDSShi’ite citizens of Saudi Arabia regularly reportpervasive discrimination and have a long historyof exclusion from administrative or politicalposts of authority. Saudi authorities continue toindoctrinate the country’s youth with hatefulideas that dehumanize and encourage violenceagainst other religious groups as well as againstSunni Muslims who deviate from orthodoxreligious teaching.While Riyadh has aggressively pursued nonviolent human rights defenders for what theypost online, comparable scrutiny has not beenapplied to Saudi religious leaders whoencourage intolerance or violence using thesame media. The Saudi government reservesthe right to dismiss radical clerics from the pulpitbut typically does not use it with preachers whostop short of endorsing al Qaeda or targetingthe state. In fact, it often grants them specialprivileges, such as senior government posts,officially-endorsed speaking opportunities, orstate-sanctioned access to the airwaves.Saudi-owned outlets notorious for promotingsectarian intolerance, such as the televisionstation al-Majd and the news website Lojainiat,which have been permitted by the state to keepoperating.H U M AN R I G H T S F I R S T

9United Arab EmiratesThe country’s positive image is pushed by animpressively lavish lobbying and PR machine inWashington D.C.—more expensive than that ofany other Middle Eastern country.But dissent is not tolerated and human rightsactivists are targeted, threatening the country’sprogress and stability. The 2013 U.S. StateDepartment human rig

respect for human rights are essential tools in countering violent extremism This blueprint compiles and summarizes previous Human Rights First blueprints. For more information on a specific topic or country, please refer to the following documents: How to Conduct Effective Counterterrorism that Reinforces Human Rights (December 2014);