Germany and Brazil have circulated a draft resolution to a UN General Assembly committee that calls for an end to excessive electronic surveillance, data collection and other gross invasions of privacy.
The draft resolution, which both Germany and Brazil made public on Friday, does not name any specific countries, although UN diplomats said it was clearly aimed at the United States, which has been embarrassed by revelations of a massive international surveillance programme from a former US contractor.
The German-Brazilian draft would have the 193-nation assembly declare that it is “deeply concerned at human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications”.
It would also call on UN member states “to take measures to put an end to violations of these rights and to create the conditions to prevent such violations, including by ensuring that relevant national legislation complies with their obligations under international human rights law”.
The resolution would urge states “to establish independent national oversight mechanisms capable of ensuring transparency and accountability of State surveillance of communications, their interception and collection of personal data”.
It would also call on UN human rights chief Navi Pillay to prepare and publish a report “on the protection of the right to privacy in the context of domestic and extraterritorial, including massive, surveillance of communications, their interception and collection of personal data”.
