Tag: UN

In a scathing new report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warns that mass surveillance is “emerging as a dangerous habit rather than an exceptional measure” and that “the very existence of a mass surveillance programme…creates an interference with privacy.” The commissioner also slams judicial review processes, writing that in many countries they “amounted…to an exercise in rubber-stamping.”

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.

On the 13th of June in Geneva, the WSIS + 10 High Level Event (WSIS + 10 HLE) concluded, culminating in the endorsement of two outcome documents, the WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes, and the WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015.
At the conclusion of the HLE, Access joined APC, CDT, CTS/FGV, Global Partners Digital, IFLA, the Internet Democracy Project, IDEA, and KICTAnet in making the following statement.

The 26th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) opened this week and there are a number of internet-related human rights issues on the agenda, including a new resolution on promotion, protection, and enjoyment of human rights on the internet.

Today, Access and other civil society groups in the International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), published a joint letter outlining the seven concrete steps each country must take to ensure that they effectively implement the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

Last Thursday, the U.N. Human Rights Committee released a report criticizing NSA surveillance, for among things, failing to protect rights of non-U.S. persons. The Committee’s report comes in the context of its overall review of civil and political rights in the U.S. in accordance with its treaty obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

This week the United States will stand before an expert body at the United Nations and be forced to face difficult questions regarding its human rights record, including its performance on the right to privacy. Among the list of issues prepared by the Human Rights Committee for the review and shadow reports by human rights organizations is mass government surveillance and the U.S.’s refusal to recognize the extraterritorial application of human rights obligations.

Amidst reports of declining human rights at home, Vietnam will appear before the U.N. Human Rights Council on Wednesday for a review of its human rights record. Access, as part of a coalition of freedom of expression organizations, is urging the international community to address Vietnam’s deteriorating human rights situation, in particular the increase in cyber attacks against civil society.