Tag: Business & Human Rights

Quick response to ODNI transparency report published today

On June 18, Telefónica published its 2013 Sustainability Report, to depict the company’s efforts to respect privacy, free expression, and other human rights, as well as social and environmental concerns, but fails to include many details.

On June 25, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution to develop a treaty holding transnational companies legally responsible for human rights abuses.

As the 26th session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) nears its close, the Council today adopted a resolution on the “The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet,” spearheaded by Sweden, Brazil, Tunisia, Nigeria, Turkey, Sweden, and the USA. As we noted in our HRC briefing note, this resolution follows up on the Council’s landmark resolution two years affirming that human rights apply online as they offline.

Amongst the dangers faced by the USA FREEDOM Act—the surveillance reform legislation in the U.S. most likely to pass—as it moves from the House to the Senate, is the introduction of a mandatory data retention requirement.

The right to communicate is being curtailed across Central African Republic (CAR), under government mandated service restrictions meant to stop political protests.

Access complied the following list of readily available digital security tools to help internet users in Thailand exercise fundamental freedoms in a safe and secure manner online.

Without warning, Kenyans learned last month that Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecoms operator, had contracted with the government to provide a new communications and street-level surveillance system. The new system integrates 2,000 video surveillance cameras, video conferencing, digital radios, and a mapping system into a central command center. Worryingly, this contract likely entails many forms of street-level surveillance including license plate readers, facial recognition technology, and real-time tracking across major cities like Nairobi and Mombasa.

Late last week, Access intervened before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, Europe’s highest human rights court, in the case Delfi AS v. Estonia. At stake in the Delfi case are questions of intermediary liability and whether european websites can continue allowing users to post content freely, anonymously, and without government-mandated censorship.

It is with a heavy heart that Access reports that Egyptian longtime human rights activist Alaa Abd El Fattah has been jailed and sentenced to 15 years in prison today, along with 24 other activists.