ABSTRACT
The premise of this paper is that when international cooperation for the purposes of transnational law enforcement conflicts with human rights, such cooperation may engage the shared responsibility of the multiple states and/or international organisations involved. Shared responsibility means that the responsibility of a multiplicity of actors for human rights violations is distributed separately among more than one of the actors, rather than to just a single actor.2 An example is the constellation of facts reviewed by the European Court of Human Rights in ElMasri v. Macedonia.3 The Court held Macedonia responsible for its violation, during the extraordinary rendition of El-Masri, of his rights. However, there was little doubt that Macedonia was not responsible alone for the mistreatment of ElMasri by CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) agents, and that the responsibility was thus shared by both Macedonia and the United States.4 Other examples of situations where shared responsibility may be engaged as a result of transnational law enforcement include migration policy,5 anti-piracy operations,6 antiterrorism operations abroad7 and ‘border management’ by Frontex.8
