Freedom House Methods of Transnational Repression A Palestinian border officer inspects the passport of a traveler returning from Egypt at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Image credit: Abid Katib/Getty Images. A lthough every country’s use of transnational repression is distinct, there are shared features across incidents that make them comparable. We divide transnational repression tactics into four categories: 1. Direct attacks are those in which an origin state carries out a targeted physical attack against an individual abroad. This category includes assassinations, assaults, disappearances, physical intimidation, and violent forced renditions. 2. Co-opting other countries describes attacks that involve manipulating other countries to act against a target through detention, unlawful deportation, and other types of forced renditions, which are authorized through pro forma but meaningless legal procedures. Interpol abuse is also a form of co-optation, in which origin countries instrumentalize Interpol’s notification mechanisms in order to manipulate a host country. 3. Mobility controls covers tactics like passport cancellation and denial of consular services, preventing the target from traveling or causing them to be detained. Origin states also then use other forms of transnational repression, especially illegal deportation or forced rendition, against the detained individual. 4. Threats from a distance covers tactics that the origin state can carry out without physically acting beyond its own jurisdiction. These include online intimidation or surveillance and coercion by proxy, in which a person’s family, loved one, or business partner is threatened, imprisoned, or otherwise targeted. These tactics are extremely common because of their ease for the origin state and degree to which they can affect the target. They are so ubiquitous Freedom House and others have sometimes called them “everyday” transnational repression. freedomhouse.org 9