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<font face="Verdana">Norbert<br>
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I am not very sanguine about the possibility of an office/
authority taking care of foreigner’s rights, and also manned by
foreigners. (Btw, there are foreigners and there are foreigners,
Canada for instance being much less foreign to the US then Sri
Lanka, and I am not even mentioning Iran where too human beings
happen to reside.) Apart from being conceptually difficult, there
is no precedent for such kind of thing. On the other hand, there
are precendents of an international system enforcing international
law for all people of the world in all countries, that allow
themselves to be subject to that international system -
International criminal court of justice, for instance. Therefore,
this latter may be the more likely route to go. <br>
<br>
If we need a truth and reconciliation commission that Bruce
Schneier seeks in the article, it needs to be global. US, and
those closely allied to it - whether because of residing in
certain countries, or because of personal persuasion, should get
over this thing about US solving the world's problems, and come to
terms with interacting with the rest of the world on equal terms.<br>
<br>
parminder <br>
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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On Friday 06 September 2013 02:06 AM,
Norbert Bollow wrote:<br>
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<blockquote cite="mid:20130905223607.63bcc2c8@quill" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Michael Gurstein <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:gurstein@gmail.com"><gurstein@gmail.com></a> wrote:
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<pre wrap="">What Schneier is suggesting would go a long way to resolving some of
the issues that Snowden raises for US citizens but doesn't seem to
address what the NSA has been doing in the rest of the world--the EU,
the UN, Mexico, Brazil that we know of now. What can/could/should be
done about those and by whom?
Bruce Schneier <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/bruce-schneier/"><http://www.theatlantic.com/bruce-schneier/></a>
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<pre wrap="">
The intelligence agencies of every country need, in addition to
their being accountable to the people and the political institutions of
their own country, to be made accountable to the people of the world.
Any country can start this process by institutionalizing such
accountability, with the goal of making it as trustworthy as possible.
Schneier's suggestions provide good guidance, with the difference that
in what I suggest, the goal would be to gain trust among the people
outside the country. For example, analogous to Schneier's suggestion
of a “special prosecutor”, the “special prosecutor of violations of the
/human right to privacy/ of foreigners” should be a foreigner with
international credibility, with a technical staff that also consists
of 100% foreigners.
Over time, experience will show how such institutions can be set up so
that they're effective, and what works less well.
Eventually, minimal requirements for such institutions (that are
sufficient to achieve effective international protection of the human
right to privacy) can be distilled into a treaty.
Greetings,
Norbert
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