Freedom House Policy Recommendations For governments of countries that host exiles and targeted diasporas Improve education and raise awareness about the threat of transnational repression. • Establish an official definition of transnational repression to be used by all government agencies. This definition should recognize that transnational repression is a threat to democratic institutions and the exercise of individual rights. • Develop a plan to spread awareness among law enforcement agencies, intelligence services, and officials working with refugees and asylum seekers so that they can incorporate the definition of transnational repression into their procedures, recognize potential perpetrators and victims, and better mitigate and respond to threats. • Issue travel advisories about states that engage in transnational repression, enabling citizens and residents to make informed decisions about whether and where to travel abroad. • Develop specific outreach strategies to connect law enforcement agencies with targeted diaspora communities. Inform individuals who are vulnerable to transnational repression of the resources available to them, and learn about different communities’ concerns. Engagement should treat individuals targeted by transnational repression as victims to be protected, not as potential security threats. This outreach should be separate from efforts to counter violent extremism. Although both activities require building community trust, the source and intent of the threat in these two policy areas is quite different. Whenever possible, authorities should distinguish between surveillance and coercion by foreign state agents on the one hand, and indoctrination and recruitment by violent extremist groups on the other. processes can be built into the existing crime-reporting systems used by law enforcement agencies, but they may require specialized training about the tactics of transnational repression. • Limit the ability of perpetrators to commit transnational repression. • Apply additional vetting to extradition requests and Interpol notices from the governments of countries rated Not Free by Freedom House—and particularly those known to engage in transnational repression—to prevent abuse of law enforcement and judicial processes. • Review extradition, legal cooperation, readmission and return, and intelligence-sharing agreements with governments that engage in transnational repression. Identify agreements and processes that need additional oversight or that should be discontinued altogether to prevent abuse. • Screen applications for diplomatic visas to avoid granting accreditation to diplomatic personnel who have harassed, intimidated, or otherwise harmed exiles or diaspora members in the past. • Restrict the export of surveillance technology. When reviewing export licensing applications, give extra scrutiny to applications from companies seeking to export products to countries whose governments may engage in human rights abuses, especially those previously identified as perpetrators of transnational repression. Where export controls already exist, governments should enforce them thoroughly and update and strengthen them as necessary to account for the development of new technologies. • Strictly regulate the purchase and use of surveillance tools and protect end-to-end encryption. Government surveillance programs Track transnational repression and coordinate responses. • Establish a specific mechanism to track domestic incidents of transnational repression and identify the perpetrator governments. The governments of host countries must create processes to recognize and record cases that occur within their borders. These Review counterintelligence and law enforcement information-sharing practices and ensure that they effectively disseminate data about threats stemming from transnational repression. Information needs to be properly circulated among agencies responsible for domestic intelligence and law enforcement at all levels of government in order to ensure that vulnerable individuals receive adequate warning and protection. freedomhouse.org 33