Foreword

• Author: Craig Forcese; Nicole LaViolette
• Pages: 7-8

vii

Foreword

Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948,

signif‌icant work has been done to secure fundamental civil and politi-

cal rights for all. Nevertheless, human rights activists, international

lawyers, and scholars have witnessed the expansion of anti-terrorism

policies with considerable alarm and apprehension. Many have voiced

concerns that both terrorist acts and the measures adopted to coun -

ter such criminal behaviour are threatening hard-fought human rights

gains at the international and domestic levels. The issues addressed in

The Human Rights of Anti-terrorism are therefore of pressing and consid-

erable interest to anyone working in the f‌ield of human rights.

The Human Rights Research and Education Centre was f‌irst ap -

proached to assist with the organization of the June 2006 colloquium.

This gathering gave birth to the Ottawa Principles on Anti-terrorism and

Human Rights. The international workshop was of signif‌icant interest

to the centre as it furthered a central part of our mandate, namely, to

foster discussions of the linkages among human rights, international

humanitarian law, governance, legal reform, and development. The

gathering brought together highly regarded scholars and thinkers from

across Canada and around the world to grapple with the interrelation-

ship among anti-terrorism, human rights, and international humanitar-

ian law. The discussions were insightful, challenging, and diff‌icult as the

balance between respecting fundamental rights and protecting national

security is a diff‌icult one to strike. It is tremendously signif‌icant that

participants were able to f‌ind suff‌icient consensus to draft the Ottawa