[governance] FORMAL CONSENSUS CALL - IGC endorsement: International civil society letter to Congress
Baudouin SCHOMBE
b.schombe at gmail.com
Sat Jun 15 06:23:34 EDT 2013
You're right Parminder but when we make the rules of conduct in connection
with the observance of human rights, we must all be considered.
SCHOMBE BAUDOUIN
Téléphone mobile:+243998983491
email : b.schombe at gmail.com
skype : b.schombe
blog : http://akimambo.unblog.fr
Site Web : www.ticafrica.net
2013/6/15 parminder <parminder at itforchange.net>
>
> On Saturday 15 June 2013 02:49 PM, Baudouin SCHOMBE wrote:
>
> I support this statement. After all, no one can pretend to be above the
> law.
>
>
> When there is no global law then it is more difficult to say no one can be
> above the law.... and there is no global law to constrain the US from doing
> what it would with the centres and nodes of the Internet which it
> occupies.... We can though keep talking about the much fancied but
> meaningless bottom up processes here.... parminder
>
> parminder
>
> It is a principle as old as democracy in advanced democracies, prinicipe
> must constantly remain in our minds and reflexes whatever our geographical
> situation and who we are.I support this statement. After all, no one can
> pretend to be above the law. It is a principle as old as democracy in
> advanced democracies, prinicipe must constantly remain in our minds and
> reflexes whatever our geographical localisation and who we are.
>
> SCHOMBE BAUDOUIN
>
> Téléphone mobile:+243998983491
> email : b.schombe at gmail.com
> skype : b.schombe
> blog : http://akimambo.unblog.fr
> Site Web : www.ticafrica.net
>
>
>
>
> 2013/6/15 Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch>
>
>> > > http://bestbits.net/prism-congress/
>>
>> [with IGC coordinator hat on]
>>
>> FORMAL CONSENSUS CALL
>>
>> We have had quite a few expressions of support for the “International
>> civil society letter to Congress” already, and no objections so far.
>>
>> Please review the proposed statement text as included for reference
>> below.
>>
>> If you agree with the proposed statement or are indifferent about it,
>> there is no need to take action about it at the current stage.
>>
>> If however you disagree with IGC expressing support for this letter, it
>> is now the final opportunity to object if you wish to do so.
>>
>> ** Any objections should be posted by Monday June 17, 9am UTC. **
>>
>> If no objections are received by that time, IGC endorsement of the
>> proposed letter will be deemed to have been decided by consensus.
>>
>> NOTE on potential further steps in the decision-making process: If there
>> are any objections, we will then discuss how to proceed.
>>
>> Greetings,
>> Norbert
>>
>> -- text proposed for endorsement follows--------------------------------
>>
>> Civil society letter to United States Congress on Internet and
>> telecommunications surveillance
>>
>> Members of US Congress:
>>
>> We write as a coalition of civil society organizations from around the
>> world to express our serious alarm regarding revelations of Internet
>> and telephone communications surveillance of US and non-US citizens by
>> the US government. We also wish to express our grave concern that US
>> authorities may have made the data resulting from those surveillance
>> activities available to other States, including the United Kingdom, the
>> Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Australia and New Zealand.[1] Many
>> US-based Internet companies with global reach also seem to be
>> participating in these practices.[2]
>>
>> The introduction of surveillance mechanisms at the heart of global
>> digital communications severely threatens human rights in the digital
>> age. These new forms of decentralized power reflect fundamental shifts
>> in the structure of information systems in modern societies.[3] Any step
>> in this direction needs to be scrutinized through ample, deep and
>> transparent debate. Interference with the human rights of citizens by
>> any government, their own or foreign, is unacceptable. The situation of
>> a citizen unable to communicate private thoughts without surveillance
>> by a foreign state not only violates the rights to privacy and human
>> dignity, but also threatens the fundamental rights to freedom of
>> thought, opinion and expression, and association that are at the center
>> of any democratic practice. Such actions are unacceptable and raise
>> serious concerns about extra-territorial breaches of human rights. The
>> inability of citizens to know if they are subject to foreign
>> surveillance, to challenge such surveillance, or to seek remedies is
>> even more alarming.[4]
>>
>> The contradiction between the persistent affirmation of human rights
>> online by the US government and the recent allegations of what appears
>> to be mass surveillance of US and non-US citizens by that same
>> government is very disturbing and carries negative repercussions on the
>> global stage. 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 is suggested. Bearing in mind that the US must engage
>> in a long overdue discussion about how to update and modernize its
>> policy to align with its own founding documents and principles, what
>> happens next in legislative and Executive Branch oversight in the US
>> will have huge and irreversible consequences for the promotion and
>> protection of the human rights of people around the world.
>>
>> It is also notable that 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 …”[5] and, just a few days
>> ago, on June 10, the US was part of a core group of countries that
>> drafted a cross regional statement, which 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.”[6] That was apparently not the case with the latest
>> practices of the US Government. Besides representing a major violation
>> of fundamental human rights of people worldwide, the incoherence
>> between practices and public statements by the US also undermines the
>> moral credibility of the country within the global community that
>> fights for human rights, as they apply to the Internet and fatally
>> impacts consumers’ trust in all American companies that provide
>> worldwide services.
>>
>> On 10 June, 2013 many signatories to this letter joined together to
>> raise our concerns to the United Nations Human Rights Council.[7] We did
>> so against the background of the recent report of the UN Special
>> Rapporteur on the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Mr. Frank
>> La Rue.[8] 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 current national
>> surveillance program with domestic law.[9]
>>
>> We are also extremely disappointed that, in all the post ‘disclosures’
>> statements, US authorities have only insisted that there was no access
>> obtained to content related to US citizens, and just their
>> communication meta-data was collected. There has not been a word on the
>> issue of large-scale access to content related to non US citizens,
>> which constitute an almost certain human rights violation. The focusing
>> of the US authorities on the difference between treatment of US
>> citizens and non-citizens on an issue which essentially relates to
>> violation of human rights is very problematic. Human rights are
>> universal, and every government must refrain from violating them for
>> all people, and not merely for its citizens. We strongly advocate that
>> current and future legal provisions and practices take this fact into
>> due consideration.
>>
>> We therefore urge the Obama administration and the United States
>> Congress to take immediate action to dismantle existing, and prevent
>> the creation of future, global Internet and telecommunications based
>> surveillance systems. We additionally urge the US Administration, the
>> FBI and the Attorney General to allow involved or affected companies to
>> publish statistics of past and future Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
>> Act (FISA) requests they have received or may receive.[10] We further
>> call on the US Congress to establish protections for government
>> whistleblowers in order to better ensure that the public is adequately
>> informed about abuses of power that violate the fundamental human
>> rights of the citizens of all countries, US and other.[11] We also join
>> Humans Rights Watch in urging the creation of an independent panel with
>> subpoena power and all necessary security clearances to examine current
>> practices and to make recommendations to ensure appropriate protections
>> for the rights to privacy, free expression, and association. The
>> results of this panel should be broadly published.
>>
>> [1] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d0873f38-d1c5-11e2-9336-00144feab7de.html,
>>
>> https://www.bof.nl/2013/06/11/bits-of-freedom-dutch-spooks-must-stop-use-of-prism/
>> and http://www.standaard.be/cnt/DMF20130610_063.
>>
>> [2] Including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype,
>> YouTube, and Apple:
>>
>> http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-intelligence-mining-data-from-nine-us-internet-companies-in-broad-secret-program/2013/06/06/3a0c0da8-cebf-11e2-8845-d970ccb04497_story.html
>>
>> [3] http://www.state.gov/statecraft/overview/
>>
>> [4] (A/HRC/23/40)
>>
>> [5] http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/RES/20/8
>>
>> [6] http://geneva.usmission.gov/2013/06/10/internet-freedom-5/
>>
>> [7] http://bestbits.net/prism-nsa
>>
>> [8] (A/HRC/23/40)
>>
>> [9] Asking the U.S. government to allow Google to publish more national
>> security request data
>>
>> http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/asking-us-government-to-allow-google-to.html
>>
>> [10] https://www.stopwatching.us/
>>
>> [11] The just-released Global Principles on National Security and
>> Freedom of Information (the Tshwane Principles) which address the topic
>> of Whistleblowing and National Security provide relevant guidance in
>> this regard:
>>
>> http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/Global%20Principles%20on%20National%20Security%20and%20the%20Right%20to%20Information%20%28Tshwane%20Principles%29%20-%20June%202013.pdf
>> .
>>
>>
>> ____________________________________________________________
>> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
>> governance at lists.igcaucus.org
>> To be removed from the list, visit:
>> http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
>>
>> For all other list information and functions, see:
>> http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
>> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
>> http://www.igcaucus.org/
>>
>> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
>>
>>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________
> You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
> governance at lists.igcaucus.org
> To be removed from the list, visit:
> http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
>
> For all other list information and functions, see:
> http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
> To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
> http://www.igcaucus.org/
>
> Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20130615/94cb557a/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing
For all other list information and functions, see:
http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
http://www.igcaucus.org/
Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t
More information about the Governance
mailing list