COUNTER-TERRORISM, CITIZENSHIP AND HUMAN

RIGHTS

LEE JARVIS (UEA) AND MICHAEL LISTER (OXFORD BROOKES)18 NOVEMBER 2015

CONTEXT: CONTEMPORARYNovember 2015:

• Threat level from international terrorism remains ‘severe’:

• An attack is ‘highly likely’• Successes?

• 40 plots foiled since 7/7 (November 2014)• 7 attacks disrupted in 2015 (November 2015)

• Recent measures:• Counter-extremism strategy launched

(October 2015)• Increased funding to security services for

recruitment (November 2015)• UK to join air campaign in Syria?

CONTEXT: HISTORICALUK (counter-)terrorism experience:

• Lengthy confrontation with terrorism• Partition of Ireland: first dramatic changes

to the UK’s penal code• Ten major pieces of anti-terrorism

legislation since 1974 alone

For critics, UK anti-terrorism law: • Hasty, distinctive, continuous, repetitive

QUESTIONS• How do UK publics understand

and experience counter-terrorism campaigns?

• How do anti-terrorism powers impact citizenship and human rights?

RESEARCH CONTEXT• Dominance of quantitative or statistical studies of ‘public

opinion’ around counter-terrorism• Limited nuance and detail

• Primary focus on religious communities and identities• Especially Muslim identities

• Need to speak to – or with – publics, rather than for them• Citizenship and rights are lived experiences, not abstract

statuses.

OUR RESEARCH

Fourteen focus groups:• Ethnic identity: white/black/Asian• Location: Metropolitan (London, Birmingham); Non-metropolitan

(Oldham, Swansea, Llanelli, Oxfordshire)

Open-ended questions on security and anti-terrorism powers:• Group dynamics within conversations• Flexibility of public views• Shared sources of knowledge• Depth – rather than breadth - of understanding

UNDERSTANDINGS OF COUNTER-TERRORISM

Scepticism

• Create fear• Alienate minority communities• Ineffective• Unnecessary• Being seen to do something• Potential for misuse

Support/ Acquiescence

• Terrorism threat• Public ignorance of the (real) threat• Reassurance• Protection of British culture or values• Judicial safeguards and protections

SOURCES OF SCEPTICISMCT perpetuates a climate of fear:

• ‘creating a complete fear culture’ (London, Asian, Female)

• ‘It’s the reds under the beds thing and it’s come back round again and now it’s aimed at the way a person looks or dresses’ (Oldham, Asian, Female)

Alienation of minority communities:• I’m being watched, I’m being searched, I’m a target group, I’m not safe’

(Swansea, Black, Female)

• ‘It concerns me that people may be driven to terrorism, who might be law abiding and so on, by the very treatment they get by the police’ (Llanelli, White, Male).

SOURCES OF SCEPTICISMIneffective:

• ‘you’re never going to catch the people by doing that ... you’re just going to be suspecting everyone around you’ (London, Asian, Female)

• ‘do we look like terrorists? Do we look like followers of al-Qaeda?’ (Llanelli, White, Male)

• ‘laws don’t solve social problems. We have made these terrorism laws and terrorism has not gone away’ (London, Black, Female).

Unnecessary• ‘I don’t believe that a lot of these things are necessary’ (London, Black, Female)

• ‘there is a, sort of, kneejerk reaction, let’s get rid of all the bins or whatever because somebody might put a parcel in it and it might blow up, but it’s a sign of the times, I think’ (Oldham, White, Female);

SOURCES OF SCEPTICISM

Security theatre:• ‘they’re all about creating the impression that somebody’s doing

something’ (London, White, Male)

• ‘I think these measures are only put in place to almost make people feel safe’ (London, Black, Female)

• ‘if you say anti-terrorism it is like a mantra: oh yes, we must have it’ (Llanelli, White, Female)

SOURCES OF SCEPTICISMFear of misuse:

• They have to be very careful about their misuse. They have to be very, very, very careful’ (London, Black, Female).

• ‘the power to stop and search…I don’t think that’s an anti-terrorism thing at all. I think that’s a catch-all so they can, you know, they see three black guys in a car, they’ll stop it because they think there’s going to be drugs in there’ (Oldham, White, Male).

ACQUIESCENCETerrorism threat:

• ‘there are people out there, aren’t there, that are quite, you know, a threat. And, you know, what do you do? (Oxford, White, Female).

• ‘they seem unethical…but for the last couple of minutes I was thinking, what else can you do? (Swansea, White, Male)

Public ignorance:• I can’t quantify how successful these anti-terrorism measures are at

keeping the nation secure’ (Oxford, White, Female).

• ‘The problem with terrorism is that you don’t know [...] what the threat is, so you don’t know whether they’re more effective’ (London, White, Male)

ACQUIESCENCEReassurance of seeing ‘something’ done:

• ‘To some extent [I feel safer, because]…it gives me the impression that something is being done’ (Swansea, Black, Male)

• I’m happy to go through and be seen naked on that scanner if it means that I know that everybody else is’ (Oldham, White, Male)

Defending British culture or values:• ‘I don’t want to see people on the streets at Wootton Bassett when

they’re bringing the soldiers home. They’re, you know, calling them killers and this, that. Have a bit more respect’ (Oldham, White, Male)

ACQUIESCENCEJudicial safeguards and protections:

• ‘I do have faith in the justice system... obviously the justice system has its flaws, but…as a Muslim if I was to say something and I know that I was right on that matter then I would have faith in the system…I’m not scared of what I say; I’m quite open about my beliefs’ (London, Asian, Male)

• The law is, ‘fundamentally right and just’ (London, Asian, Female)

COUNTER-TERRORISM AND CITIZENSHIP

Citizenship:• A lived experience as much as a

formal legal status• Entails more than the ownership of

rights:• Ability to participate in the

public sphere• Sense of duties or

obligations to other citizens• Feeling of belonging or

identity

COUNTER-TERRORISM AND RIGHTS

• Widespread belief that rights had been diminished:• ‘It’s the erosion of civil liberties. I see it coming, you

know, and I’m thinking, I don’t really want to be around’ (London, Black, Female)

• Some – mainly white – individuals, unconcerned:• ‘All this is happening on a level that does not touch us’

(Oldham, White, Male)

• ‘if you come here and you incite any hatred, regardless of who it’s against or what it’s against …You lose your rights’ (Oldham, White, Male)

COUNTER-TERRORISM AND RIGHTS• Others felt directly targeted:

• All of these [anti-terrorism measures] are designed to control Muslims’ (Birmingham, Asian, Male)

• If I weren’t black, I’d feel safer ... but I feel that I’m the victim in this … because everything is aimed at a group of people, so I don’t feel safe with these laws’ (Swansea, Black, Female).

COUNTER-TERRORISM AND PARTICIPATION

• For some – again, mainly white – individuals: an annoyance:• ‘Something you’ve got to get used to’ (Oldham, White, Male)

• ‘I can’t say I felt threatened; I was annoyed, I was angry’ (London, White, Female)

• Others responded with disengagement and self-censorship:• ‘I would love to change things, which is probably why I have a passion for

politics. But right now, currently, I would rather keep my mouth shut and not say anything’ (London, Asian, Female)

• ‘It makes me think about what I’m going to say, and it makes me think who am I going to speak to, because that might be used against me’ (London, Asian, Male)

COUNTER-TERRORISM AND DUTIES• Some acceptance of a need to engage with counter-

terrorism programmes:• ‘Muslims themselves need to take on the responsibility

of engaging [with anti-terrorism initiatives]’ (London, Asian, Male)

• For others, a reduced willingness to do the state’s bidding:

• ‘Why should you help a government that doesn’t want to help you?’ (Swansea, Black, Female)

COUNTER-TERRORISM AND IDENTITY

• Expressions of alienation and suspicion, common:

• ‘It doesn’t make me feel part of Britain as much as I did… after that last ten years… the way I’m looked at, I don’t feel as part of the British society, as accepted’ (Oldham, Asian, Female)

• ‘I think people do feel alienated, and I think these kind of laws do, sort of, make people feel really suffocated and really alienated’ (Birmingham, Asian, Female)

RESISTANCE?• Voicing opposition:

• ‘Our challenge to government, if this thing is going to be released to them, I challenge them with all the things that I’ve said, and I really hope that they look into all of the root causes of problems’ (London, Black, Female)

• Refusing victimhood status:• I don’t feel like there is a them and us … if you label yourself as

someone who is an outsider then that will end up happening to you. (London, Asian, Male)

• Continuing engagement:• ‘if we’re aggrieved, there are, through these shady democratic

processes, methods of redressing those, but it just takes time’ (Birmingham, Asian, Male)

CONCLUSIONSWide range of attitudes toward counter-terrorism powers and their consequences

• Knowledge and understanding of counter-terrorism measures are also very varied.

Concerns of citizens from minority communities especially acute• Not limited to specific ethnic or religious groups.

Vicious circles and disconnected citizenship:• For some, reductions in rights connect to reduced participation and

feelings of belonging.

• Others feel almost entirely removed from the impacts of counter-terrorism policy.

FURTHER INFORMATIONContact:

• Lee Jarvis: l.jarvis@uea.ac.uk• Web: http://www.leejarvis.com/

• Michael Lister: mlister@brookes.ac.uk • Web:

http://www.social-sciences.brookes.ac.uk/people/Academic/prof.asp?ID=410• Project website:

• http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-000-22-3765/read

Publications:• Jarvis, L. & Lister, M. (2015) Anti-Terrorism, Citizenship and Security

(Manchester University Press)• Jarvis, L. & Lister, M. (2015) Critical Perspectives on Counter-Terrorism

(Routledge)• Jarvis, L. & Lister, M. (2013) ‘Disconnected Citizenship? The Impacts of Anti-

terrorism Policy on Citizenship in the UK‘, Political Studies 61(3): 656-675.

Thank you for your time