International collaboration

The challenges associated with national security are changing, and the awareness and recognition of human rights have increased, both in this country and abroad, in recent years. Oversight of secret services has become an integral part of the democratic system, and countries have established various systems for overseeing these services. Over the course of the last few years, the Committee has collaborated with oversight bodies in several different countries, exchanging experiences. For example, the Committee has been in touch with oversight bodies in Sweden, the Netherlands, and Canada, and they all share certain similarities with the Norwegian EOS Committee.

The ways in which various countries oversee their secret services vary greatly. Regardless of the many differences in how to approach oversight activities, however, the new oversight schemes all share one key objective, which is to safeguard the democratic and legal rights of citizens and to make sure the services do not encroach on these rights. Security and intelligence services the world over have joined forces in the fight against international terrorism. This creates some challenges in terms of overseeing the services’ collaborative relationships, both in Norway and abroad, such as, for example, overseeing the use of concealed coercive measures and storing electronic information.

The Committee collaborates closely with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and Professor Ian Leigh at the Human Rights Centre, University of Durham. The collaboration has so far led to a 2003 seminar in Oslo, which in turn led to the publication of a handbook on the oversight of security and intelligence services. A similar seminar was held in Oslo on October 2008 as well.

The Committee’s annual reports account for the Committee’s meetings with and visits to foreign collaborative partners in the last year, as well as any conferences and seminars the Committee has attended abroad.