Today Lavits (Latin American Network of Surveillance, Technology and Society Studies), Gpopai ,  TransMediar / Pimentalab and Instituto Nupefoin a huge international coalition in calling upon Latin American countries to assess whether national surveillance laws and activities are in line with their international human rights obligations.

We have endorsed a set of international principles against unchecked surveillance. The 13 Principles set out for the first time an evaluative framework for assessing surveillance practices in the context of international human rights obligations.

A group of civil society organizations officially presented the 13 Principles this past Friday in Geneva at a side event attended by Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion, Frank LaRue, during the 24th session of the Human Rights Council. The side event was hosted by the Permanent Missions of Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Hungary.

Brazilian scenario

The problem with the proliferation of surveillance mechanisms in Brazil is broad and complex. It appears from the action of the State as a voracious collector – and lousy keeper – of personal and biometric data of citizens even in conflict, especially class disputes, within civil society itself. It is happening through devices that collect images and other data that govern access to private spaces. With the digitalization of processes, this issue has become even more complex. Recently, it was been revealed that the national electoral authority had signed an agreement that would allow access to the data of all Brazilian voters by a private credit referencing company (called Serasa and linked to the multinational Experian). The country lacks legislation to give protection to personal data stored electronically and a recent attempt to issue a bill with this purpose has been attacked by lobbyists and postponed indefinitely. At the same time, more recently, the state itself and national companies were exposed as victims of spying by the National Security Agency of the United States. Business and political leaders are poorly aware of the fragility of the security of electronic communications currently in use in the country, and public debate on the issue and its implications is still very rare and limited to academia and activists.

The launching of the “International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance” comes at a very crucial moment for Latin American countries, especially Brazil, which still has a legal vacuum regarding the protection of human rights in the context of digital communications. At least three recent important cases emphasize the urgent need to promote actions and public debate on the topics covered by these Principles: the leaked evidences that the Brazilian government and companies have been systematically targeted by spying programs of the National Security Agency of the United States; the expansion on the use of surveillance technologies and practices in order to respond to international standards demanded by the coming sporting megaevents – specially the World Cup and the Olympics; and recent cases of monitoring, surveillance and criminalization, by state governments in Brazil, of the participants of political protests started in June 2013. We highlight the importance of the notion of “protected information”, that relates to different modes of data communication, beyond the meanings of content disclosure, which can provide, today, important and sensitive information about individuals. Finally, it is worth mentioning the importance of strengthening mechanisms to ensure the protection of personal data and human rights within communication, not only against intrusions of the state, but also from commercial interests of the private sector, as well as increasingly often and complex alliances, between the state and non-state actors.