International Human Rights Committee to review NSA's compliance with US privacy statute

A report published on the Electronic Frontier Foundation said that the Human Rights Committee will be looking into whether surveillance practices of the US National Security Agency has complied with legislation on privacy rights. The committee is a body composed of independent experts who oversee the implementation of human rights obligations of member-states under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights treaty. According to the EFF, the United States has the obligation to regard ICCPR as it would with any domestic law as it is one of the companies that has ratified the treaty in 1992.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navy Pillay clarified during the opening session of the committee meeting in Geneva that privacy and surveillance issues is a priority. He said, and was quoted, "Powerful new technologies offer the promise of improved enjoyment of human rights, but they are vulnerable to mass electronic surveillance and interception. This threatens the right to privacy and freedom of expression and association."

EFF said that the issue of privacy and surveillance has spurred largely from the revelations of Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor who had leaked classified documents detailing the agency's alarming surveillance practices. Because of Snowden's revelations, EFF said that several programs of the US government might have violated the obligations the US has promised to comply in the ICCPR.

Former assistant secretary for human rights Michael Posner, had told the New York Times, "(I hope that the US administration would) take the next step, which is to say, ‘This isn't just policy - it is an international legal obligation.'"

On the other hand, top State Department lawyer John Bellinger in the Bush administration is skeptical that the US would have a change of heart. "This is a particularly sensitive time because of the N.S.A. controversy. I cannot imagine the U.S. government would change its position, even if it were previously tempted to."

Tags

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, NSA Surveillance Program

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