UN motion aims to protect online privacy

Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS

The U.N. General Assembly’s human-rights committee on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution sponsored by Brazil and Germany to protect the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance, after months of reports about U.S. eavesdropping abroad.

The symbolic resolution, which seeks to extend personal-privacy rights to all people, followed a series of disclosures of U.S. eavesdropping on foreign leaders, including Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, that surprised and angered allies.

Brazil’s Ambassador Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said the resolution “establishes for the first time that human rights should prevail irrespective of the medium, and therefore need to be protected online and offline.”

The resolution expresses deep concern at “the negative impact” that such surveillance, “in particular when carried out on a mass scale, may have on the exercise and enjoyment of human rights.”

German Ambassador Peter Wittig asked, “Is the human right to privacy still protected in our digital world? And should everything that is technologically feasible, be allowed?”

The consensus adoption of the resolution means it also will unanimously pass the whole 193-member General Assembly in December. General Assembly resolutions aren’t legally binding but reflect world opinion and carry political weight.

The United States did not fight the measure after it engaged in lobbying last week with Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which comprise the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing group, to dilute some of the draft resolution’s language.