On December 10-11, 2025, several Africa Center alumni took part in a validation workshop and the official launch proceedings for the Brussels Memorandum on Good Practices for Oversight and Accountability Mechanisms in Counterterrorism. The Africa Center, represented by Senior Academic Associate Caroline Cosby, participated in this convening as a member of the legislative oversight working group. The working group also consisted of several Africa Center alumni with expertise on defense sector and counterterrorism who are part of the Rule of Law (RoL)/security sector governance (SSG) community of interest, including Ms. Annelize van Wyk (African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum), Honorable Ahmed Abdi (Somalia, Secretary of the Defense Committee), Senator Abdul Aziz Yar’adua (Nigeria, Chairperson of the Senate Committee on the Army), and Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings (Ghana, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Security and Intelligence). Ms. ‘Kemi Okenyodo (Nigeria, Rule of Law and Empowerment Initiative) was also present as a member of the police oversight working group. These invitations came as a direct result of Africa Center programming on effective resourcing and oversight of the defense sector, the dynamism of the RoL alumni community of interest, and the distinguished profiles of the Africa Center alumni who were invited.
The Memorandum focuses on how oversight and accountability mechanisms can play a crucial role at the national, regional, and international levels in promoting and ensuring compliance with legal mandates, regulations and policy directives; human rights and other relevant international laws; professional standards, codes of conduct, and rules of ethics; and the rule of law. It was written following a year-long consultative process, in which the International Institute for Justice (IIJ) and RoL convened stakeholders from Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) member-states around the world.
To better operationalize the memorandum, the IIJ convened four separate working groups to address the challenges to counterterrorism (CT) oversight and identify opportunities to overcome these challenges. Working groups focused on police oversight, oversight by civil society, oversight by national human rights commissions, intelligence oversight, and legislative oversight.
Members of the legislative oversight working group produced a white paper highlighting entry points for strengthening legislative oversight in CT. The group’s recommendations for legislatures included:
- Clarifying legal definitions of terrorism in national legislation to ensure they are precise.
- Strengthening the capacity of Members and staff on SSG, CT, related laws and codes of conduct.
- Establishing specialized parliamentary committees on CT oversight.
- Promoting transparency and access to information between the executive and the legislature.
- Embedding and strengthening oversight mechanisms in CT strategies to facilitate more effective CT strategy implementation.
- Facilitating public participation in the legislative process to ensure CT measures are reflective of communities’ concerns.
- Promoting cooperation with regional and international stakeholders to facilitate learning and knowledge exchange.
- Monitoring emergency powers to ensure they deter terrorists but do not infringe on rights or disproportionately shift the balance of power in favor of the legislature.
- Upholding human rights standards in CT measures.
- Formalizing the role of Non-State actors in counterterrorism within a framework of rule of law, human rights, and good governance.
Though it is not clear that this specific group of experts will meet again, there are significant ways in which the Africa Center and its alumni community can remain engaged on this topic. One is to continue building productive relationships based on mutual understanding and common interest between the legislature, independent oversight bodies, and security services. Building off of the progress made in Brussels, there are opportunities to more deeply connect the security services, defense committees in parliament, and independent oversight institutions to develop mutually shared understandings of counterterrorism challenges and how the oversight process can enhance counterterrorism’s effectiveness. Independent oversight institutions may also be able to support security services in their counterterrorism efforts through preventative, educational engagements. The Africa Center has and will continue to draw these connections as often as possible through its work. One possible opportunity would be for alumni subject matter experts in counterterrorism, defense sector resourcing for counterterrorism, and civil-military relations for counterterrorism to use the ACSS alumni network to share their knowledge with defense and security committees in parliament. Participants in the Brussels Memorandum launch also demonstrated high demand for learning sessions on the use of artificial intelligence and emerging tech in CT/countering violent extremism operations, the intelligence cycle, and other prescient topics that will impact committees’ abilities to oversee counterterrorism efforts in ways that ensure that their countries’ defense and security sectors have the resources they need to do this work with the legitimacy and accountability that will bring lasting stability to their countries.
Participants in the Brussels Memorandum launch also demonstrated high demand for learning sessions on the use of artificial intelligence and emerging tech in CT/countering violent extremism operations, the intelligence cycle, and other prescient topics that will impact committees’ abilities to oversee counterterrorism efforts; with this knowledge, they hope to ensure that their countries’ defense and security sectors have the resources needed to work with legitimacy and accountability, ultimately resulting in lasting stability in their countries.