Emile Dirks

Ottawa has taken steps to address TNR. Yet, as we note, "the more that Ottawa avoids centring human rights in its international dealings and domestic policies, the more it signals to allies and adversaries alike that human rights are negotiable commodities in a new global order."

Transnational Repression in an Age of Upheaval: Global Policy Challenges for Canada The Canadian government’s ability to respond to transnational repression is challenged by three factors: Ottawa’s pursuit of warmer ties with autocracies; Ottawa’s uncritical embrace of artificial int...

Shaila Baran, Emma Dickinson, Andre Fajardo & I have a new policy brief for CIGI on transnational repression, arguing that Ottawa's ability to counter TNR is challenged by its warming ties with autocracies, its uncritical embrace of AI, & US authoritarianism.

www.cigionline.org/publications...

Spear phishing: how to stay safe and prevent advanced attacks against civil society - Access Now Join us to learn and take action to prevent spear phishing and other digital attacks against activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.

MARCH 10: Get practical safety tips from the Citizen Lab's Rebekah Brown at @accessnow.org's Digital Security Helpline webinar on preventing spear-phishing attacks against civil society.

Register: www.accessnow.org/event/digita...

Our submission aims to confront an inconvenient truth in governments' efforts - particularly those of the US - to counter CCP transnational repression: You cannot be instilling fear in immigrants while simultaneously expecting them to report CCP harassment or publicly speak out against the regime.

Cert glad to have worked with colleagues on this important issue, at a time when migrants are targeted with impunity by origin and host states

Our latest submission to the Committee on Enforced Disappearance and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is out now.
We highlight the role of digital technologies; spyware & location-tracking technologies in facilitating enforced disappearances of exiled dissidents

Submissions to the Committee on Enforced Disappearances: And the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances - The Citizen Lab Citizen Lab researchers have co-authored two submissions to the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.  One submission focuses on digital...

Take a look at our submission, as well as a separate submission on the role of digital tools in enforced disappearances by my Citizen Lab colleagues @sanstis.bsky.social, @noura.bsky.social, Tristan Surman, @mmichae1sen.bsky.social, & @rondeibert.bsky.social, here: citizenlab.ca/submissions-...

Three big factors are contributing to this pressing human rights problem: 1) hostile anti-migrant policies; 2) inadequate resourcing for the processing of migrant cases; & 3) migrant-related data sharing agreements among states. Importantly, these factors are not limited to any single country.

Migrants are uniquely vulnerable to TNR. However, host states’ policies on countering TNR, & their policies on restricting migration, are in tension. Efforts to address TNR are undermined by migration controls which curtail the rights of migrants, & place them at greater risk of detention & removal.

Submissions to the Committee on Enforced Disappearances: And the UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances - The Citizen Lab Citizen Lab researchers have co-authored two submissions to the Committee on Enforced Disappearances and UN Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.  One submission focuses on digital...

Sarah McKune, @nateschenkkan.bsky.social, an anonymous @citizenlab.ca researcher, @yaqiu.bsky.social & I have co-authored a UN submission on the enforced disappearance of migrants in the context of transnational repression:
citizenlab.ca/submissions-...

New EU report urges more aggressive action against transnational repression - ICIJ The report cites ICIJ’s China Targets investigation and calls for improved coordination across the bloc.

Senior research associate @emiledirks.bsky.social spoke with @icij.org about a new report he co-authored on #transnationalrepression in the EU.

Read it here: www.icij.org/investigatio...

Some good news! Guan Heng has just been granted asylum in the US, although DHS reserve the right to appeal the decision in the next 30 days.

Great to see @nateschenkkan.bsky.social presenting our report “Perpetrators & methods of transnational repression and possible counter strategies” (co-authored w/ @emiledirks.bsky.social @zecsaky.bsky.social & me) in the @afet.europarl.europa.eu

Full report: www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en...

What Carney didn’t say in Davos is what the world needed to hear most The world is looking to Canada for reassurance that a stable multicultural democracy is not only possible but desirable.

PM Carney 🇨🇦gave a courageous speech with a lot of real-talk about the "rupture" in the international order.

But he left something out: the values that define us as a country & distinguish us from the fascist train wreck in the US 🇺🇸

My oped w Jason Stanley
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

It was a privilege to work on this report for the @europarl.europa.eu about transnational repression w/ @nateschenkkan.bsky.social @zecsaky.bsky.social & @emiledirks.bsky.social

Check it out here: www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en...

I urge leaders of democracies worldwide to step forward and stand with Americans fighting on the ground.

And yesterday our study on transnational repression led by @nateschenkkan.bsky.social and co-authored with @alexdukalskis.bsky.social and @emiledirks.bsky.social went live on the European Parliament's website. Do check it out! www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etud...

It was a privilege contributing to this report on transnational repression in the EU. I learned a great deal working with @nateschenkkan.bsky.social, @zecsaky.bsky.social, & @alexdukalskis.bsky.social. A special thank you to the victims of TNR who shared their experiences & expertise with us.

🚨 New report alert! 🚨

Our new study for the European Parliament on transnational repression in the EU is live!

Co-authored with @zecsaky.bsky.social, @emiledirks.bsky.social, and @alexdukalskis.bsky.social: a great team to work with.

The Secret Trial of the General Who Refused to Attack Tiananmen Square

"In the trial footage, General Xu explains that he refused the order as a matter of individual conscience and professional judgment...[S]aying that a commander who carried out martial law poorly would go down as “a sinner in history.”"

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/17/w...

"Mothers had to choose which of their kids to feed...Pregnant women with life-threatening anemia were so desperate for calories that they ate mud. Out of options and mortally afraid, refugees began fleeing...They said they’d rather risk being shot or dying on the perilous route than slowly starving"

He Recorded China’s Detention of Uyghurs. The U.S. Wants to Deport Him to Uganda.

Today, a lawyer for DHS suggested sending Guan Heng to Uganda, a country with close ties to China that is "more likely than not" to send him back, says Mr. Guan's lawyer. Due to increased public attention to the case, he has been scheduled for a 2nd hearing on Jan 12. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/15/u...

I’m a Chinese pro-democracy activist. Here’s how to find courage to oppose Trump | Yaqiu Wang While acting on your moral convictions can be risky, it can also feel profoundly good

In this piece, I share lessons for Americans who are struggling with whether to protest Trump. Drawing from my years working with courageous Chinese activists, I argue that while acting on one’s moral convictions can be risky, it can also feel profoundly good. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

@hrichina.bsky.social

Man who filmed Uyghur concentration camps now fights for his own freedom in the United States In 2020, Guan Heng embarked on a risky mission to prove the existence of concentration camp facilities used to imprison Uyghurs. Now, he faces the threat of deportation back to China, where he would f...

The Trump administration is threatening to deport a Chinese man who personally documented the Chinese government's massive detention system in Xinjiang. If forcibly returned to China, he faces the risk of state persecution for his invaluable & brave work.

open.substack.com/pub/hrichina...

📣We’re hiring! There are two exciting new job opportunities in our foreign relations and economy and industry programs:

📌Analyst/Senior Analyst/Senior Economist (m/f/d) - Economy and Industry
📌Senior/Lead Analyst (m/f/d) Foreign Relations

More info: merics.org/en/opportuni...

GOP: the Chinese Communist Party is evil because they harvest all your biometric and other data to empower social control.

Also GOP:

Eye scans, licence plate readers, spyware: technology used to catch criminals and terrorists is being repurposed to fulfil Trump's pledge to deport 1mn undocumented migrants this year. Critics fear it’s the thin end of the authoritarian wedge.

An #FTEdit thread on America’s new surveillance state 👇

The Trump administration that deported these Russians is the same government that this February condemned Thailand's forcible return of 40+ Uyghurs to China, where they would face the risk of "persecution, forced labor, and torture."

This is the Tufts PhD student who seized by masked agents on the street and jailed for two months because she wrote an op-ed calling for the school to divest from Israel.