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Homepage introduction text and picture

The problem: 

Programs that fight poverty, provide essential services in underserved communities, and promote human rights and peace are being hindered by laws such as the Patriot Act and Bush's Executive Order 13224.

Our solution:

Reform US counterterrorism laws and policies so they protect both our national security and the vital work of charities.

Latest Blog Entries

Looking Ahead to 2010
Kay Guinane and Suraj K. Sazawal
December 31, 2009
Thoughts about Charities on Human Rights Day 2009
Kay Guinane
December 10, 2009
Tainted Book: A Misguided View About Charities
Kay Guinane
November 19, 2009
Trick or Treat for Frozen Funds
Kay Guinane
November 16, 2009
more

News

UN Approves Reforms for Listing and Delisting on Terrorist List
February 1, 2010

The lack of due process in the United Nations' (UN) terrorist watch list has made some governments reluctant to enforce sanctions against those listed.  Responding to these criticisms, and at the urging of human rights advocates, on Dec. 17, 2009 the UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1904, which sets out an improved process and creates greater transparency.  These improvements, supported by the U.S. in the Security Council vote, do not yet apply to the U.S. listing process.

Analysis: Legal Roadblocks for U.S. Famine Relief to Somalia Creating Humanitarian Crisis
January 27, 2010

The unfolding crisis in Somalia illustrates a common dilemma U.S. nonprofits face when trying to conduct humanitarian operations in territory controlled by an organization listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The humanitarian imperative to provide urgently needed food to nearly one million people in an area controlled by al-Shabab, a listed SDGT, conflicts with the “strict liability” standard against supporting terrorists that even has State Department employees fearing sanctions from Treasury. Now the United States government (USG) response to the famine in Somalia is forcing it to confront the same onerous hurdles current national security laws create for nonprofits.   

Roundtable Discussion on Zakat Committees Highlights Problems with Anti-Terror Regime
January 26, 2010

On Jan. 14, 2010, a roundtable discussion with UK scholar Jonathan Benthall featured research on zakat committees in the West Bank, focusing on their evolutionary process during the past 20 years. Benthall was in Washington, DC to share the findings of a November 2009 report about zakat committees written by his colleague Emanuel Schaeublin of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies Centre on Conflict, Development and Peacebuilding in Geneva, Switzerland.  Alistair Millar, President of the Fourth Freedom Forum and Co-Director of the Center on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation, described how nonprofit groups reduce the threat of terrorism but have been viewed with suspicion by governments. 

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