[bestbits] International civil society letter to Congress to follow up from HRC statement

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 12/06/2013, at 10:02 PM, Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org> wrote:

> We need a clean copy.. but I am afraid I can't work on it today.

Here is a clean copy, the text has changed quite a bit:

Members of US Congress:
 
We write as a coalition of civil society organizations from around the world - but mostly important, from countries deaply affected by the recent news -  to express our serious alarm regarding recent revelations of Internet and telephone communications surveillance of US and non-US nationals lead by the United States government; and further our concern that US authorities may have made the data resulted from surveillance activities available to other states, including possibly to Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand.[1] Some US-based Internet companies with global reach also seem to be complicit in these practices.[2] 

The introduction of surveillance mechanisms at the heart of global digital communications severely threatens human rights in the digital age. Such actions are uneceptable and raise serious concerns about extra-territorial serious violations of human rights and the inability of citizens to know if they are subject to foreign surveillance, to challenge such surveillance, or to seek  remedies.[3]

Interference with the human rights of citizens by any government, their own or foreign, is unacceptable. The situation of a citizenry unable to form or communicate private thoughts without surveillance by a foreign state not only violates the rights to privacy: it violates fundamental human dignity and threatens the fundamental right to freedom of thought, opinion and expression that is at the centre of democratic practice. 
 
Without the actions of those with the courage to defend the human rights of others even at considerable personal risk through making these practices known to the general public this mass surveillance programme might never have come to light. Such whistleblowers play an essential role in promoting transparency and upholding the human rights of all. Their actions and their person should be protected and their efforts to combat these mass violations of the fundamental human rights of all global citizens must be supported.

There are already signs that the revelations of widespread surveillance of US and non-US nationals online has undermined the global leadership of the United States on the promotion of Internet freedom worldwide, including through the considerable efforts of its State Department.  Unless Congress takes assertive action to undo this damage, we see the moral credibility of the United States in the global community on Internet freedom issues being fatally impacted.
 
There revelations may also carry repercussions on the global stage. They suggest a blatant and systematic disregard for the human  rights articulated in Articles 17 and 19 of the International Covenant  on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the United States is signatory, as well as Articles 12 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  It is notable that only last year, the United States government supported the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 20/8, which "[a]ffirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression ..."[4] The contradiction between this affirmation of human rights online and the recently revealed evidence of what appears to be mass surveillance of US and non-US nationals is very disturbing. A cross regional statement made on behalf of US and others on Monday 10 June correctly emphasized “that when addressing any security concerns on the Internet, this must be done in a manner consistent with states’ obligations under international human rights law and full respect for human rights must be maintained.”[5]
 
Two days ago, civil society groups including many signatories to this letter joined together to raise serious concerns about these issues with the United Nations Human Rights Council.[5] We did so in light of the recent report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Mr. Frank La Rue.[6] This report detailed worrying trends in state surveillance of communications with serious implications for the exercise of the human rights to privacy and to freedom of opinion and expression. We note that US-based stakeholders have also written a letter to Congress to express their concerns about the compliance of the programme with domestic law.[7]
 
We therefore demand that action be taken to immediately dismantle and prevent the creation now and in the future of a global Internet based surveillance system. Affected companies must be authorised to publish statistics of past and future Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests they have received. We further call on the United States Congress and the President as appropriate to protect the whistleblowers involved in this case and support their efforts to combat these kinds of mass violations of the fundamental human rights of American and foreign citizens.[8]


> But thanks MIke and others who have given input.  I would be happy to let Joy and Jeremy clean up and give us a version to send tomorrow or Friday.

Let's try to send tomorrow/Thursday, can we close it at noon GMT?

-- 
Dr Jeremy Malcolm
Senior Policy Officer
Consumers International | the global campaigning voice for consumers
Office for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East
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