That’s why relying on passports as the only basis of international mobility is a gift to dictatorships. The world’s democracies risk becoming the dictators’ witting enablers and need to pilot an alternative to enable the mobility of activists who lack dual citizenship.
03 | The basis
Authoritarian regimes don’t just issue passports—they also revoke them. Even when a citizen has escaped to the “security” of overseas, they can be coerced by the dictatorship they left behind if it cancels their passport or revokes their citizenship, making them stateless.
02 | To revoke
To cross a border, a traveler must present a passport or at least be registered to one. But deference to the passport as the sole criterion for identification and international movement gives dictatorships unchecked power over their citizens. This, in turn, can be a catastrophe for dissidents who oppose these regimes and their policies.
01 | The sole
Activists — and the world’s democracies — have a problem. Mutual respect for sovereignty means that governments of every type, whether liberal democracy or a brutal autocracy, show deference to one another’s monopoly power over the movement of their citizens overseas.
Our Challenge
Stories
The next step is to leverage biometrics for this broader purpose. DissidentPASS is working to build a coalition among the world’s democracies for a pilot project to permit known oppositionists and dissidents without dual citizenship to travel and cross borders. This group would be identified and selected by diplomatic agreement, based on jointly set criteria and a shared list of names.
Many countries, including the United States, have taken the first step already: They use biometrics to establish and confirm travelers’ identities. But these biometrics don’t ultimately permit entry, they only make it speedier. Biometrics link back to the traveler’s legal documents and no government has yet been so bold to use biometrics in lieu of a passport.
Biometrics offer a technological solution to the passport problem faced by oppositionists who have escaped overseas but lack dual citizenship and the security of a second passport.
Our Solution
A select group of the world’s democracies should launch a pilot project to permit known oppositionists and dissidents without dual citizenship to travel and cross borders. This group would have to be identified and selected by diplomatic agreement, based on jointly set criteria and a shared list of names.
Our Goal
Our Technology
To create a decentralized system
Our solution, developed jointly with diplomats, security officials, and technologists, is to store data in secure device environments or digital wallets, with protection assured through hardware encryption, multifactor authentication, and temporary digital signatures that prevent duplication or unauthorized access. We believe these should reduce the risk of loss or forgery of these biometrically based humanitarian digital passports while allowing for secure online authentication.
DissidentPASS aims to create a decentralized system that would store biometric data locally—on devices or encrypted personal keys—ensuring that individuals maintain full control over their data. Local storage on smartphones, smart cards, or hardware tokens can enhance convenience and security for users.
Dissidents will ask how this protects their personal data. The answer lies in avoiding centralized databases, which pose significant risks of misuse, breaches, and authoritarian control.
Open Letter
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How you can help
Alena Popova
Alena Popova, a Russian oppositionist, has run for office and been oppressed, surveilled, and repeatedly detained by Vladimir Putin’s regime, which has branded her as a “foreign agent.” Alena has spanned the worlds of politics, technology, law, and civic action. She has founded companies and been a startup investor. A women’s rights activist, she co-authored one of Russia’s first anti-domestic violence laws. Her work aims especially to counter authoritarians’ use of big data and AI for surveillance and violence.
Our co-founders combine experiences in the worlds of dissident activism and technology, on the one hand, and diplomacy and national security, on the other. These are the diverse worlds we seek to bridge through DissidentPASS.
Evan Feigenbaum, a former diplomat, has been an advisor to two American Secretaries of State, a former Treasury Secretary, the CEOs and boards of leading companies, and investment funds. He served twice as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, has led several high-stakes bilateral and multilateral negotiations as the U.S. diplomatic negotiator, and received five individual and group Superior Honor Awards from the U.S. State Department. He is vice president for studies of one of the world’s leading think tanks.
Evan Feigenbaum
Evan A. Feigenbaum, a vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Our Founders
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