Tightening the Purse Strings: What Countering Terrorism Financing Costs Gender Equality and Security
Summary
The ways in which countering terrorism financing rules have been designed and implemented take little to no account of these features of women’s rights organizations and the environments in which they operate. In practice, legal and regulatory frameworks to counter terrorism financing often restrict transnational financial flows; involve heavy compliance requirements; cause delays in, or block receipt of, funds; favor established and often international organizations; call for detailed information on civil society’s activities, and decrease the risk appetite of donors and banks. Tightening the Purse Strings: What Countering Terrorism Financing Costs Gender Equality and Security represents the culmination of research, interviews, surveys, and statistical analysis carried out by the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) at Duke University School of Law and the Women Peacemakers Program (WPP) to begin to fill these gaps in understanding how responses to terrorism and violent extremism may, in practice, undermine gender equality. In particular, this Report analyzes these measures from an international human rights law perspective, assessing the extent to which countering terrorism financing measures comply with a host of international law obligations, such as prohibitions on both direct and indirect discrimination on the basis of sex and gender and guaranteeing freedom of association, assembly, and expression, including in ensuring access to resources.
Citation
Tightening the Purse Strings: What Countering Terrorism Financing Costs Gender Equality and Security. Durham, NC: Duke Law International Human Rights Clinic and Women Peacemakers Program, 2017.
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