CISES RESEARCH ISCP
Transnational
Repression Tracker
Tracking publicly documented efforts by China, Russia, Iran and North Korea to target people beyond their borders.
Selected public records. Counts are not estimates of prevalence or victim totals. Scope: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
AN EVIDENCE-LED VISUAL ACCOUNT
Repression crosses borders.
Follow the public record.
Explore six views of the research register, then inspect the sources behind each case. These are counts of selected case records, not estimates of the scale of repression.
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Actor–country connections
Source: CISES ISCP research register. Geographic markers are schematic.
Where does cross-border targeting appear?
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Lines represent attribution recorded in the sources. They do not trace an operative’s route or imply the affected government’s involvement.
Select a connection to inspect its cases.
Four actors. Uneven public visibility.
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Coverage reflects disclosure, research choices and source availability. These totals do not rank states by the true scale of repression.
Select a bar to filter the register.
A chronology of the cases we can document.
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Points use the recorded incident year. A year-only record does not establish an exact date. Gaps are not evidence that repression stopped.
Select a point to open its case and sources.
Coercion takes different forms.
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Each case has one principal method for comparison. That label may not describe every action in an operation.
Select a method to inspect its cases.
The evidence matters as much as the allegation.
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Charges, court findings, official assessments and human-rights documentation establish different things. A charge is not a conviction.
Select a category to read the underlying evidence.
Follow an actor or an affected country.
Choose an actor or country to examine a selection.
This view follows every filter in the case register. Scenes 01–05 describe the complete published register.
FROM FINDING TO SOURCE
Inspect the evidence behind the picture.
Every chart comes from the case records below. Follow a connection, open a case, and read the cited source before drawing conclusions.
View the chart data as accessible tables
THE CASE REGISTER
Explore the evidence
Search the source-linked cases by actor, country, method, evidence and year. Scene 06 and all record exports follow these filters.
We record publicly documented cross-border targeting of dissidents, journalists, human-rights defenders, minorities, former officials and other perceived opponents. The actors in scope are China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. The affected country is where the overseas act took place, which may differ from the person’s nationality or usual residence.
One case is not one victim. A coordinated operation or group deportation normally has one record. Separate later plots may have linked records. Case counts must not be read as victim totals.
- Court finding
- A judicial finding or guilty plea relevant to the case, accessed directly or through identified reporting. This does not necessarily establish every alleged organiser’s guilt.
- Criminal charge
- Conduct alleged in a complaint or indictment. Defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted.
- Official attribution
- A government, police or intelligence assessment. An assessment is distinct from a criminal conviction.
- UN / NGO documentation
- A case documented by an identified UN mechanism or human-rights organisation, with its conclusions attributed to that source.
Dates and updates. Incident years refer to the event or stated period. Where only a disclosure date is known, this is explained in the record. “Latest sourced position” describes the cited evidence; it does not certify that no later development exists.
Charts and exports. Scenes 01–05 describe the complete published register. Scene 06 follows the case filters. Map lines link attributed actors to affected countries using schematic locations; they do not trace operational routes. Principal method and attribution basis each have one category per record. A printed PDF is a dated extract of all selected cases, including those on later results pages.
Suggested citation. Centre for International Security and Economic Strategy, International Security and Conflict Programme, Transnational Repression Tracker, relevant case IDs, date accessed.
Coverage. The initial register contains selected historical cases, not an exhaustive or representative sample. Disclosure, language and source availability affect coverage. The four-actor scope is a research boundary, not a claim that other states do not practise transnational repression.