// BEN SAUL Ben Saul is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamen- tal Freedoms while Countering Terrorism and the Challis Chair of International Law at The University of Sydney. He has published 20 books and taught at Oxford, Harvard, The Hague and Xiamen Acad- emies of International Law, and in Europe and Asia; prac- tised internationally; advised governments and the United Nations; and undertaken missions in over 50 countries. He is formerly an associate fellow at Chatham House.
litions in defence of human rights. Many small daily victories go unreported. RECLAIMING ACCOUNTABILITY G7 leaders can play a vital role in empow- ering the global and national defence of human rights. The G7 should more actively condemn violations and combat impunity, including holding each member to account. It should impose real costs on violators, including sanctions where appropriate. The G7 should denounce attacks on human rights and justice institutions, including the International Criminal Court, the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Pal- estine Refugees, and non-governmental organisations. The G7 should vigorously combat repris- als against civil society, and more actively engage civil society in countering terror- ism, including to monitor human rights violations and promote accountability and remedies.
The G7 should mobilise greater economic resources for human rights, at a time when the goods that prevent terrorism from spreading – human rights, humanitar- ian relief, development and peace making – have been drastically defunded in order to buy weapons, and the United Nations is crippled by a liquidity crisis. The G7 should promote human rights– compliant global and national regulation of artificial intelligence, without loopholes for law enforcement, national security and military uses. The G7 should also push to resolve the century-old failure to internationally define terrorism – the legal black hole at the heart of so many contemporary human rights violations. Protecting human rights is essential not only to safeguard human dignity, but also to ensure that counterterrorism efforts are legitimate and effective – and do not fuel grievances that can radicalise new genera- tions of terrorists.
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