[Book launch] Human dignity and human security in times of terrorism

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the measures we have to take to protect staff, speakers and participants, this book launch will be a webinar. Details of the call will be sent to registered participants.

Despite a current drop in the number of deaths, terrorism should still be considered a serious and widespread problem. However, the responses to this phenomenon are often more problematic from a long-term perspective. On June 17 2020, T.M.C. Asser Instituut and T.M.C. Asser Press will celebrate the book launch of ‘Human Dignity and Human Security in Times of Terrorism', edited by Asser researcher Dr Christophe Paulussen and Prof. Martin Scheinin (EUI). Sign up here to register for this special event.

With the human rights framework under serious pressure, the book offers a timely, important and critical in-depth analysis of human dignity and human security challenges in the lead-up, and in the responses, to current forms of terrorism. It aims to map how human dignity and human security can be secured and how law can constitute a source of trust at a time when Europe and the rest of the world continue to be plagued by terrorism.

The book, which focuses on, but is not limited to the situation in Western countries, aims to inspire not only academics - through further theorisation on the sometimes elusive but important concepts of human dignity and human security - but also practitioners working in the field of countering terrorism. The authors show that following a human rights approach will be indispensable in securing human dignity and human security for all, especially in times of terrorism.

About the editors

Christophe Paulussen is a senior researcher at the Asser Institute and a research fellow at ICCT in The Hague, the Netherlands. Martin Scheinin is Professor of International Law and Human Rights in the Department of Law of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy. Scheinin was the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism in 2005–2011.

About the book launch
On Wednesday, June 17, an expert panel discussion will celebrate the book launch of ‘Human Dignity and Human Security in Times of Terrorism’. The event will gather some of the authors to share their findings and discuss them with the audience.

Programme

19:15: Welcome remarks by Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi, researcher Asser Institute  
19:20: Presentation of the book by Christophe Paulussen and Martin Scheinin
19:35: Chapter presentations by their authors:

- Dr Rumyana Van Ark (née Grozdanova) “The Normalisation of Secrecy in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands: Individuals, the Courts and the Counter-Terrorism Framework”
- Prof Helen Duffy, “Dignity Denied: A Case Study”
- Sangita Jaghai & Dr Laura Van Waas “Stripped of Citizenship, Stripped of Dignity? A Critical Exploration of Nationality Deprivation as a Counter-Terrorism Measure”

20:10: Q&A session with the audience

- Final words from Frank Bakker, Publisher T.M.C. Asser Press

About the panelists

Dr Rumyana Van Ark (née Grozdanova)
Dr Rumyana van Ark (née Grozdanova) is Post-Doctoral Researcher in Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism and International Law at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut within the Research Strand ‘Human Dignity and Human Security’. She is also a Research Fellow and a Coordinator at the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT – The Hague). Her work focuses on the impact of counter-terrorism measures on the individual terror suspect and the long-term implications for the rule of law. Rumyana holds a PhD in Law (focusing on human rights and counter-terrorism) from the University of Durham, an LLM in Criminology and Criminal Justice from University College Dublin and a BA (Hons.) Legal Studies with Business from Nottingham Trent University.

Prof. Helen Duffy is a Professor of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at the University of Leiden and runs ‘Human Rights in Practice,’ a legal practice specializing in regional and international strategic human rights litigation. She is a graduate of the University of Glasgow (LLB Hons) University College London (LLM) and Leiden (PHD), and honorary or visiting professor at Glasgow, Melbourne and American universities. Publications include “The ‘War on Terror’ and the Framework of International law (CUP, 2^nd ed. 2015), ‘Strategic Human Rights Litigation: Understanding and Maximising Impact’ (Hart, 2018) and Law Applicable to Armed Conflict (with Bohrer and Dill), CUP 2020.

Sangita Jaghai is a PhD Candidate at Tilburg University. Her thesis focuses on the concept of nationality deprivation. Her thesis assesses why different forms of denationalization are deemed legitimate by States and when nationality deprivation is arbitrary under international law. This research also reflects on whether and how deprivation of nationality can have implications for the constitutional concept of citizenship.

Laura Van Waas Dr Laura van Waas is Assistant Professor at the Department of European and International Law at Tilburg Law School in the Netherlands, as well as a founder and Co-Director of the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion. Dr van Waas’ PhD manuscript, ‘Nationality Matters’ (Intersentia, 2008), is widely used as a reference for understanding international statelessness law by researchers and practitioners all over the world, as is the edited collection ‘Nationality and Statelessness under International Law’ which she edited together with Alice Edwards (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Further reading

Read the foreword of ‘Human Dignity and Human Security in Times of Terrorism’ here.

Human dignity and human security in international and European Law
This research strand of T.M.C. Asser Instituut adopts a human rights approach to global challenges, inter alia in the fields of counter-terrorism, international and transnational crimes, new technologies and artificial intelligence, and historical memory. It examines what it means to safeguard human dignity - also in relation to human security - in these areas.