Transfer of Surveillance Technology and End-Use Human Rights Abuses

Abstract

Abstract This article focuses on the transfer of surveillance technology that is used to commit human rights violations and questions the international responsibility of the technology-exporting State, that is the State where the seller is based and that authorises the transfer. After having clarified that the technology-exporting State cannot be considered the principal wrongdoer for the human rights abuses committed in the receiving State, it investigates whether its international responsibility for end-use human rights abuses could be determined out of complicity or if due diligence may serve the same purpose.