International Federation
for Human Rights

Since 11 September 2001, the "fight against terrorism" has been a tremendous issue on the international agenda. The
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) has always condemned all acts of international terrorism including
September 11 terrorists attacks against the USA and stressed the need to bring their perpetrators to justice, strictly in
conformity with the universal norms of human rights. Since the September 11 attacks, however, the fight against terrorism has
very often been used by the States as a means to reinforce the security measures, most of the time in disregard with
international human rights standards. Although the fight against terrorism is legitimate and necessary, its objective is
increasingly diverted by governments in order to exert their power et the expense of their commitments on human rights.
In many Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries, "terrorism" has since long been used as a pretext for repression, and
this trend has accelerated in the past 2 years. In this context and in view of the complexity of the phenomenon of terrorism
and the extraordinary range and quantity of developments at the international, regional and national levels since the events of
11 September 2001, the FIDH, with the financial support of the European Commission and Ireland Aid and in partnership with
the Human Rights Association of Turkey (IHD) and the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), organised a regional training
seminar in Ankara from 18 to 22 September 2003 to tackle the consequent trends and challenges threatening international
humanitarian and human rights law in the context of the so-called "war on terror".
The main objectives of the seminar were to propose an exchange of information and experiences between human rights
defenders in the region on the issue of terrorism from a human rights perspective, to assess the impact of the international
context of the "fight against terrorism" on legislation and practices at national and regional levels (the situation in Turkey will
be particularly stressed) and also to assess the enforcement of international and regional mechanisms for the protection of
human rights relating to grave breaches of human rights on behalf of the "war on terrorism", with a special focus on the
International Criminal Court.