From a1ab073495160677a87dd1ef8156dab93df5dc89 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: 46halbe <46halbe@berlin.ccc.de> Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2017 07:07:16 +0000 Subject: committing page revision 1 --- updates/2017/egmr-hearing.en.md | 95 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 95 insertions(+) create mode 100644 updates/2017/egmr-hearing.en.md diff --git a/updates/2017/egmr-hearing.en.md b/updates/2017/egmr-hearing.en.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..436e0f35 --- /dev/null +++ b/updates/2017/egmr-hearing.en.md @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +title: NGOs Challenge UK Government Surveillance at the European Court of Human Rights +date: 2017-11-06 00:43:00 +updated: 2017-11-06 07:07:16 +author: remission +tags: update, pressemitteilung + +On Tuesday 7 November, three joined cases brought by civil liberties and human rights organisations challenging UK Government surveillance will be heard in the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). + +<!-- TEASER_END --> + +*Big Brother Watch and Others v UK* will be heard alongside *10 Human +Rights Organisations and Others v UK* and the *Bureau of Investigative +Journalism and Alice Ross v UK*, four years after the initial +application to the ECtHR. \[1\] + +Big Brother Watch, English PEN, Open Rights Group and Constanze Kurz +made their application to the Court in 2013 following Edward Snowden’s +revelations that UK intelligence agencies were running a mass +surveillance and bulk communications interception programme, TEMPORA, as +well as receiving data from similar US programmes, PRISM and UPSTREAM, +interfering with citizens’ right to privacy. \[2\] + +The case questions the legality of the indiscriminate surveillance of UK +citizens and the bulk collection of their personal information and +communications by UK intelligence agencies under the Regulation of +Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). The UK surveillance regime under RIPA +was untargeted, meaning that EU citizens’ personal communications and +information was collected at random without any element of suspicion or +evidence of wrongdoing, and this regime was effective indefinitely. + +The surveillance regime is being challenged on the grounds that there +was no sufficient legal basis, no accountability, and no adequate +oversight of these programmes, and as a result infringed citizens’ +Article 8 right to a private life. + +In 2014, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism made an application to +the ECtHR, followed by ten Human Rights Organisations and others in 2015 +after they received a judgment from the UK Investigatory Powers +Tribunal. All three cases were joined together, and the +Court exceptionally decided that there would be a hearing. + +The result of these three cases has the potential to impact the current +UK surveillance regime under the Investigatory Powers Act. This legal +framework has already been strongly criticized by the Court of Justice +of the European Union in *Watson*. A judgment in this case will finally +push the UK Government to constrain these wide-ranging surveillance +powers, implement greater judicial control and introduce greater +protection such as notifying citizens that they have been put under +surveillance. + +Daniel Carey of Deighton Pierce Glynn, solicitor for Big Brother Watch, +Open Rights Group, English PEN and Constanze Kurz, said: “Historically, +it has required a ruling from this Court before improvements in domestic +law in this area are made. Edward Snowden broke that cycle by setting in +motion last year’s Investigatory Power Act, but my clients are asking +the Court to limit bulk interception powers in a much more meaningful +way and to require significant improvements in how such intrusive +powers are controlled and reported.” + +Griff Ferris, Researcher at Big Brother Watch, said: “This case raises +long-standing issues relating to the UK Government’s unwarranted +intrusion into people’s private lives, giving the intelligence agencies +free reign to indiscriminately intercept and monitor people’s private +communications without evidence or suspicion. UK citizens who are not +suspected of any wrongdoing should be able to live their lives in both +the physical and the digital world safely and securely without such +Government intrusion. If the Court finds that the UK Government +infringed UK citizens’ right to privacy, this should put further +pressure on the Government to implement measures to ensure that its +current surveillance regime doesn’t make the same mistakes.” + +Antonia Byatt, Interim Director of English PEN, said: “More than four +years since Edward Snowden’s revelations and nearly one year since the +Investigatory Powers Act was passed, this is a landmark hearing that +seeks to safeguard our privacy and our right to freedom of expression. +The UK now has the most repressive surveillance legislation of any +western democracy, this is a vital opportunity to challenge the +unprecedented erosion of our private lives and liberty to communicate.” + +Jim Killock, Executive Director of Open Rights Group, said: “Mass +surveillance must end. Our democratic values are threatened by the fact +of pervasive, constant state surveillance. This case gives the court the +opportunity to rein it back, and to show the British Government that +there are clear limits. Hoovering everything up and failing to explain +what you are doing is not acceptable.” + +**Links:** + +\[1\] The ECtHR hearing [on 7 November +2017](http://www.echr.coe.int/Pages/home.aspx?p=hearings/calendar&c=#n1353927184398_pointer) + +\[2\] [privacynotprism.org.uk/](https://www.privacynotprism.org.uk/) + +\[3\] [British government to answer fast-track spy +challenge](http://www.ccc.de/en/updates/2014/gchq-egmr) -- cgit v1.2.3