Relationship between Security and Human Rights in Counter-Terrorism: A Case of Introducing Body Scanners in Civil Aviation

Authors

  • Iztok Prezelj University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Defence and Security Studies Center

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1515/ipcj-2015-0010

Keywords:

counter-terrorism, human security, human rights, balance, terrorism, civil aviation, body scanners

Abstract

Changes in security environment after the end of Cold War and 9/11 have strongly affected our security concepts and paradigms. In the field of counter-terrorism, a serious conceptual and practical debate on the relationship between security and human rights and freedoms has begun. The goal of this paper is to reflect on this complex relationship at the conceptual level and introduce the empirical debate on this relationship in the field of civil aviation (case of introducing body scanners). The paper’s results show that the concept of human security usefully integrates the care for human rights and security of individuals. The debate on the potential introduction of body scanners on the European airports was actually a debate on the ways of providing individual human security on the airports with simultaneous concern for other human rights. The output of this debate was a compromise: body scanners can be used at the discretion of individual airports and member states, but are not an obligatory measure on all European airports.

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Author Biography

Iztok Prezelj, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Sciences, Defence and Security Studies Center

Iztok Prezelj, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. His teaching and research activities cover counter-terrorism, national security, threat and risk assessment, intelligence and crisis management. He published widely in the mentioned fields (more than 100 articles, including books or edited volumes). He is a member of the European Expert Network on Terrorism Issues (EENeT), a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Criminal Justice and Security, and the journal Security, Terrorism and Society (Sicurezza, Terrorismo e Società).

 

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Published

2015-12-30

How to Cite

Prezelj, I. (2015). Relationship between Security and Human Rights in Counter-Terrorism: A Case of Introducing Body Scanners in Civil Aviation. International Studies. Interdisciplinary Political and Cultural Journal, 17(1), 145–158. https://doi.org/10.1515/ipcj-2015-0010

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