Dr. Cüneyt Gürer, Professor of Transnational Security Studies at George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, participated to the UN Forum on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law held Nov. 24-25 at the UN Office in Geneva (Palais des Nations). The event, organized by the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (UN-OHCHR) is the fourth session of the forum focused on the topic of “Strengthening democracies to build back better: challenges and opportunities.”

In his remarks, Gürer emphasized the importance of democratic security governance and how democratic backsliding can put security organizations under pressure.

“As a part of the democratic backsliding, both populist politicians and autocrats try to use security institutions and security professionals for political power consolidation,” said Gürer adding that “there is a real risk of unlawful interference of politics to security institutions to establish a personal loyalty to politicians rather than security institutions and professional loyalty to the rule of law and democratic principles.”

Gürer’s recommendation to forum participants and to the international community at large was to focus on democratic practices of security governance and to establish mechanisms that reduce the space for autocrats to misuse security institutions for political purposes, while empowering institutions to support democratic practices.