The EU Directive on Combating Terrorism (2017) poses many human rights challenges, and upon adoption was widely criticized by civil society groups for its broad-reaching scope and potential negative impact. The key question became how the directive would be transposed into domestic law, and in due course interpreted and applied in practice. Over a two year period from 2018 - November 2020, HRiP was an active member of a project funded by the EU’s Justice Programme that explored the evolving practice in EU states. The project, which was coordinated by the ICJ and carried out with other partners across Europe, involved a series of workshops and judicial exchanges with lawyers, prosecutors and judges across the EU and studies on the broadening scope of counter-terror criminal law and in some cases judicial pushback against the worsening human rights implications.
The project culminated in the preparation of Judicial Guidance on implementing the Directive in national courts in accordance with human rights obligations. The Guidance was authored by Helen Duffy (HRiP), Roisin Pillay and Karolina Babicka (ICJ) and is available in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. More information on the workshops and reports is here.