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The Lawfare Podcast: Fionnuala Ní Aoláin on Counterterrorism and Human Rights

Matt Gluck, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Jen Patja
Wednesday, November 8, 2023, 8:00 AM
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin discusses her six-year tenure as the UN Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
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Fionnuala Ní Aoláin completed a productive six-year tenure as the UN Special Rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights last week. Among other issues, she examined how financing counterterrorism and new technologies used for counterterrorism affect human rights. She also analyzed the protection of human rights in several locations with different political contexts, including visits to Guantanamo Bay and detention facilities in northeast Syria. 

Lawfare Research Fellow Matt Gluck sat down with Fionnuala to discuss her experience as special rapporteur. They spoke about the downstream harms of counterterrorism financing, her conversations with Guantanamo Bay detainees, why gender should be a meaningful consideration of counterterrorism policy, and much more.


Matt Gluck is a research fellow at Lawfare. He holds a BA in government from Dartmouth College.
Fionnuala Ní Aoláin is a Regents Professor, the Robina Chair in Law, Public Policy, and Society, and directs the Human Rights Center at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Jen Patja is the editor and producer of The Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.