The Norwegian Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee
Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF)
Human Rights Centre, Department of Law, University of Durham
ACCOUNTABILITY OF INTERNATIONAL
INTELLIGENCE COOPERATION
WORKSHOP PROGRAMME
Date:
17 – 18 October 2008
Venue:
The Storting, Norwegian Parliament,
The Conference centre
Prinsens Gate 26, 0026 Oslo
Accommodation: Thon Hotel Cecil, Stortingsgata 8, 0130 Oslo, Norway
Point of Contact:
Aidan Wills, email: a.wills@dcaf.ch
Tel: +41 22 741 77 00; Fax: +41 22 741 77 49
Background
International cooperation between national security and intelligence services represents one
of most significant challenges to security sector accountability today. Since the end of the
Cold War, the threats with which states are confronted have become increasingly transnational in nature, these include: large-scale organised crime; the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction; and international terrorism. The trans-boundary character of these threats
has led to increased cooperation between the intelligence and security agencies of different
states that seek to address these issues. While in some fields, cooperation between the
agencies of western states is longstanding, since 9/11 there has be an expansion in the both
the scope and scale of international intelligence cooperation; intelligence agencies now
cooperate with an increasingly broad range of international partners in areas as diverse as
weapons inspections, the prosecution of war criminals and the prevention of international
terrorism.
Recent activities associated with international intelligence cooperation have given rise to
significant concerns regarding their impact upon human rights and civil liberties. Whilst a
string of high-profile controversies have ensured that international intelligence cooperation
has been subject to investigation by national oversight organs, international bodies and
NGOs; national oversight and review bodies have struggled to ensure accountability for these
intelligence cooperation activities. As a result, international intelligence cooperation has
largely remained outside the scrutiny of oversight bodies. The resulting lack of accountability
represents a major challenge and this will be thoroughly examined at this international
workshop which will also explore possible solutions for strengthening the accountability of
international intelligence cooperation.
Objectives of the workshop:
The workshop will bring together leading experts on accountability and intelligence, with the
objectives of examining the accountability of international intelligence cooperation,
exchanging views on good practices, and putting forward recommendations for strengthening
democratic oversight of international intelligence cooperation.
Participants
Participants will include members of intelligence oversight bodies, representatives of civil
society and international organisations, intelligence professionals, and academic experts.
Organisation
The workshop is an initiative of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed
Forces, Durham University’s Human Rights Centre and the Norwegian Parliamentary
Intelligence Oversight Committee, in cooperation with the International Secretariat of the
Storting, the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo.
Information
The point of contact for the workshop is Aidan Wills at DCAF, a.wills@dcaf.ch; telephone +41
22 741 77 49, fax +41 22 741 77 05. All information will be made available at www.dcaf.ch.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CHATHAM HOUSE RULE OF NON-ATTRIBUTION WILL
APPLY THROUGHOUT THE WORKSHOP
PROGRAMME OVERVIEW
Friday 17 October 2008
13:30 – 14:00
Arrival of Participants and Registration
14:00 – 15:00
Session 1: Trends in International Intelligence
Cooperation
15:00 – 16:00
Session 2: Challenges to Accountability: Blacklisting
& Personal Data Sharing
16:00 – 16:30
Coffee Break
16:30 – 17:30
Session 3: Challenges to Accountability:
International Operations & Rendition
19.30
Dinner hosted by the Presidency of the Norwegian
Parliament.
Saturday 18 October 2008
09:00 – 10:15
Session 4: Aspects of Oversight
10:15 – 10:45
Coffee Break
10:45 – 11:45
Overseers’ Roundtable 1
11:45 – 12:45
Overseers’ Roundtable 2
12:45 – 13:45
Lunch
13:45 – 14:45.
Session 5: National and International Inquiries
14:45 – 15:15
Coffee Break
15:15 – 16:30
Session 6: Legality of International Intelligence
Cooperation
16:30 – 16:45
Concluding Remarks and the Way Ahead
PROGRAMME
(10-10-08)
Friday 17 October 2008
13.30 – 14.00
Arrival of Participants and Registration
14.00 – 15.00
Session 1: Trends in International Intelligence Cooperation
Chair:
Helga Hernes, Chair of the Norwegian Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight
Committee, Oslo Norway
Speakers:
International Intelligence Cooperation: looking into the future
Jørn Holme, Head of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST), Oslo,
Norway.
International Intelligence Cooperation in Practice
Richard Aldrich, Professor of International Security, University of Warwick,
United Kingdom
Questions and Answers
15.00 – 16.00
Session 2: Challenges to Accountability: Blacklisting & Personal Data
Sharing
Chair:
Ian Leigh, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Human Rights Centre,
University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom.
Speakers:
Blacklisting and Financial Sanctions against Suspected Terrorists
Iain Cameron, Professor of Public Law, University of Uppsala, Sweden.
Personal Data Sharing, Privacy and Surveillance
Craig Forcese, Professor of International Law, University of Ottawa, Canada.
Questions and Answers
16.00 – 16.30
Coffee Break
16.30 – 17.30
Session 3: Challenges to Accountability: International Operations &
Rendition
Chair:
Andrea Wright, former Legal Counsel to the Commission of Inquiry into the
Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar, Ottawa, Canada.
Speakers
International Operations: Peacekeeping Operations, Weapons Inspections,
Apprehension and the Prosecution of War Criminals
Simon Chesterman, Global Professor and Director, New York University
School of Law Singapore Programme, Singapore.
Rendition
Iain Cameron
Questions and Answers
19:30
Dinner hosted by the Presidency of the Norwegian Parliament at the
Stortinget’s Restaurant.
Saturday 18 October 2008
9.00 – 10.15
Session 4: Aspects of Oversight
Chair
Craig Forcese
Speakers
Proactive and continuous oversight: constraints and possibilities
Philippe Hayez, Associate Professor at Sciences-Po, former Deputy Director
for Collection & Analysis at the Directorate General for External Security
(DGSE), Paris, France.
Independent oversight bodies: constraints and possibilities
Helga Hernes
Parliamentary oversight: constraints and possibilities
Max Stadler, MP, Deputy Chair of the Bundestag Parliamentary
Control Panel and member of the G10 Commission, Berlin, Germany.
Questions and Answers
10.15 – 10.45
Coffee Break
10.45 – 11.45
Overseers’ Roundtable 1
Chairs:
Ian Leigh & Richard Aldrich
Panellists:
Irene Michiels van Kessenich-Hoogendam, Chair of the Review Committee
on the Intelligence and Security Services, the Hague, the Netherlands
Göran Håkansson, Vice Chair of the Swedish Commission on Security and
Integrity Protection, Stockholm, Sweden.
Janusz Zemke (tbc), Chairman of the Defence Committee of Parliament of
Poland (Sejm), Warsaw, Poland.
11.45 -12.45
Overseers’ Roundtable 2
Chairs:
Hans Born & Philippe Hayez
Panellists:
Gérald Vande Walle, Member of the Standing Intelligence Agencies Review
Committee, Brussels, Belgium.
Helga Hernes, Chair of the Norwegian Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight
Committee, Oslo, Norway.
Petru Gabriel Vlase, Vice-Chairperson of The Joint Standing Committee for
the exercise of parliamentary control over the activity of the Foreign Intelligent
Service (SIE) Bucharest, Romania.
12.45 – 13.45
Lunch
13.45 – 14.45
Session 5: National and International Inquiries
Chair:
Bert van Delden, Member of the Review Committee on the Intelligence and
Security Services, the Hague, the Netherlands.
Speakers:
Domestic inquiries into international intelligence cooperation: Scope, Limits
and Impact
Andrea Wright
International inquiries into international intelligence cooperation: Scope, Limits
and Impact.
Hans Born
Questions and Answers
14.45 – 15.15
Coffee Break
15.15 – 16.30
Session 6: Legality of International Intelligence Cooperation
Chair:
Simon Chesterman
Speakers:
National courts and international cooperation
Ian Leigh
Application of international law to international intelligence cooperation
Mads Andenæs, Director of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University
of Oslo, Norway.
Discussant
Martin Scheinin, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Protection and
Promotion of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering
Terrorism, and Professor of Public International Law, European University
Institute Florence, Italy.
Questions and Answers
16.30 – 16.45
Concluding Remarks and the Way Ahead
Speakers
Hans Born and Ian Leigh