Urgent: Tell Parliament what you think about your rights

The Joint parliamentary committee on  human rights are currently looking for submissions on human rights issues relating particularly to proposed legislation.  I came across it quite by chance - but it is a superb opportunity for interested citizens to get their views across - but you need to act now!

From the press release:
"The Joint Committee on Human Rights scrutinizes every Government Bill for its compatibility with human rights, including common law fundamental rights, the Convention rights protected by the Human Rights Act 1998 and the human rights contained in other international obligations of the UK. The Committee's scrutiny of Bills for compatibility with the requirements of human rights law includes consideration of whether the Bill presents an opportunity to enhance human rights in the UK. The Committee is actively seeking to encourage more input from civil society into its legislative scrutiny work.


Further to the Committee's press notice of 28 July 2009, on the Government's draft legislative programme for 2009-10, the Committee has now identified the following nine priority areas for scrutiny in 2010, based on the significance of the human rights issues involved and the likelihood of legislation being passed before the end of the parliamentary session. The Committee would welcome short submissions of up to 1500 words from interested parties by Monday 18 January."
(my highlight)

The areas for submission cover:

• lllegal File Sharing
• DNA & Fingerprints
• Domestic Violence
• Stop & Search
• Enforceable Entitlements for parents and pupils
• Mandatory Sex and Relationships education
• Reporting of family court proceedings
• Entitlement to personal care at home
• Asylum support and destitution

The press release includes more details on the rights implications of each of these topics.  It also says where to send your submission.  There is a mail address but you are also asked to send a signed hard copy (which hopefully can be accepted after the submission date).

Time is short, so if you have views on the above - and several of them have privacy issues and issues areound respect for your private life - then you need to set aside some time during the next few days to put down your views.

Resources to help formulate your submission:e.g on copyright policing

Open Rights Group on Digital Economy Bill
Liberty on the Digital Economy Bill
Latest News on the Digital Economy Bill

There are I'm sure others - I welcome constructive additions in the comments.

PLEASE SPREAD THIS TOPIC!

Updated:  now with the link to the press release!  Damn....  

Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.

The right to defend your rights...

Since 2010 opened its doors there has been an interesting debate going on here in Sweden about the ethics of breaking the law.  It all started, as things often do, with an idea...

In this case it was Peter Sunde, of Pirate Bay fame, who mooted an idea to circumvent Swedens FRA surveillance legislation by getting operators to bundle cross border traffic in encrypted tunnels...  Meaning in simple terms that operators can comply with the law by handing over all cross border traffic - but that they at the same time make life very hard for anyone trying to eavesdrop.

Journalist Andreas Ekström took umbrage and criticised Peter's position because it's undemocratic for people to choose which laws they (agree with) and want to follow.  ...which in this case means it's undemocratic to want to find a way to not have your mail, telephone calls and SMSs intercepted and snooped on.  Our democratically elected representatives have decided that's how it's going to be...  and so our is but to dutifully follow. 

There has, perhaps unsurprisigly, been much written on rights and wrongs of finding 'work arounds' to the law.  Although perhaps I'm a little surprised.  As far as I can tell Peter's idea is entirely legal - even if it would severely handicap th FRAs ability to keep tabs on things.  As any accountant can tell you there is a big difference between tax planning and tax avoidance.  If the law doesn't prohibit you doing something how can it be against some 'democratic principle' of compliance?  Though it's worth asking yourself the question of do you consider it your democratic duty to follow all laws even if they are against your own personal moral principles? 

(I'd just add at this point that laws don't actually forbid you from doing things - they define things you shouldn't do and the penalty you may suffer if caught........   then it all omes down to choice...)

However...  the one piece that caught my eye in the whole affair was an article by Rick Falkvinge on democracy and human rights (which for me at least was related to the same debate). In this case Rick explores why democracy and human rights are not the same thing - inspite of an oft shared view that democracy implicitly works to protect your rights. If a law is democratically introduced that infringes on your (or someone elses) rights - like your right to privacy.  What then.  Are you just going to quietly comply?

Politicians have a habit of drafting laws that are implicitly in violation of our rights - like surveillance by the FRA - and like the protection of Terrorism Act.  We implicitly can be expected to defend our rights...

And fortunately, with a little help, we can also see our rights vindicated as in this weeks judgement that:
".. the Court of Human Rights ruled that section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 (the broad police power for stop and search without suspicion) violates the right to respect for private life guaranteed by Article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights." (Liberty)

But wouldn't it be nice to have politicians that actually worked in your interests to protect and defend your rights in the first place?

Piratpartiet and The Pirate Party -  Putting privacy first.

Iran targets activists on the web.

Read this disturbing account in the Wall Street Journal about Iran's tactics for tackling growing criticism of the state among the large global expatriate community - photographing demonstrators, logging people's Facebook activity, imitating dissidents on Facebook, and most chillingly threatening people's families in Iran to stop their activist relatives abroad.

If true it is intensely cynical and distasteful.. On the other hand, what better warning over state misuse of the internet for surveillance do you need? States do what they can..   not what they should.

Tips on living under Surveillance: Stockholm Edition....

I've blogged about it before but just today I thought Swedish readers might find themselves in need of advice on how to communicate securely in repressive environments. 

Actually.. it's not just - or not even Sweden - that is under surveillance now that parliament here has for the second time given the thumbs up for the FRA to tap all traffic passing Swedish borders.  It's enough to piss you off....  Whatever happened to principles?

Piratpartiet & The Pirate Party -  Defending your privacy

Human Rights & Culture

Spend the time to look and learn.....

Secret Affair: This is the time for action (FRA edition)

"This is the time for action, this is the time to be seen"

Sadly I missed the demonstrations on Saturday against the FRA legislation - up for review in the Swedish parliament on Wednesday.  This legislation - which is in force since the first of January this year - allows state monitoring of ALL traffic passing Swedens international borders (mail, telephony, SMS, surfing etc, etc).  There are specific provisions to limit surveillance on traffic originating in Sweden - but all other traffic is fair game.... 

Which means if you don't live in Sweden THIS AFFECTS YOU!  Your right to privacy?  Those nice guys in Riksdagen are about to screw you over....

If that concerns you then write to them and tell them.  Lobby them to respect your privacy and vote against this legislation.

Write today...    write now........  do it.

Contact details here.  Supporting the bill and in need of your persuasion are Moderaterna (m), Kristdemokraterna (kd), Folkpartiet (f) and Centerpartiet (c)... click through for lists of names and mail contact details..


Piratpartiet & The Pirate Party -  Putting Privacy first.

Human Rights - Churchills legacy

"Conservative parliamentary candidate Jesse Norman and political columnist Peter Oborne today launch ‘Churchill’s Legacy: The Conservative case for the Human Rights Act’. The short book, published by Liberty in support of the Common Values campaign, recommends that the Conservatives reclaim their historic position as a party of British liberty and the rule of law by dropping their opposition to the Human Rights Act."

Liberty  issued a press release yesterday announcing this new book -which also includes a synopsys of the arguments contained in the book.  Interesting to see the Conservatives moving towards a more humanitarian position.  The site also has a link to the book in .pdf .  I could link to it but then you'd never go look at what else you can find at Liberty now would you..?

The French again... Privacy, what privacy?

This one I found a little depressing...

As part of the provisions for the revised Hadopi legislation there is the opportunity to introduce surveillance of communications - including e-mail. The motive is to be unbiased - so that it is not just peer to peer traffic that is being monitored for copyright infringement. So maybe they should read all your mail as well??? ... just to see you're not including anything naughty?

Don't these people have any sense of what it is they are doing?!?

Unjust business practices

The private copyright police are busy in Hull in the UK. Karoo, the local operator, are acting as judge and jury in enforcing alleged copyright infringement.

As reported by the Open Rights Group,
"None of this takes place through a court. The ‘evidence’ is not examined and cannot be disputed. Users have to accept responsibility for the alleged infringements in order to be reconnected."

What is taking place is a form of 'three strikes' policy - with a disturbing lack of judicial oversight. Three strikes proposals in France that were based on a government agency making assesssments have been struck down as unconstitutional and breach of individuls rights -yet here we have a private company taking on the responsibility to police copyright with no mandate or judicial revue whatsoever. Forcing people to sign confessions to get reconnected to the service is something the mafia would be proud of...

Contrast this with the how Swedish ISP Ephone is in court to defend the interests of it's subscribers. One of the issues there is the quality and validity of the 'evidence' provided by media companies of illegal activity. How are Karoo making their judgements?

Bear in mind that the subscription holder may not be the offender - and that this policy impacts everyone in a household not just an alleged offender - and you can see that this is just not a defensible policy.

Cease and desist!!

The Pirate Party & Piratpartiet are working for copyright reform, and an individuals rights to privacy.

I used to think human rights were not important…

I used to think human rights were not important… There is essentially nothing in nature that makes rights rights – they are at the end of the day only things people have agreed on as just principles. If you looked in on society from space you’d see that the only natural law we are bound by is the law of the jungle – people, and governments, do what they can get away with.

The principle still stands… but human rights do matter. They matter because we choose to make them matter. We choose to live our lives according to principles. How we expect to be treated is how we should expect others to be treated.

People and governments do what they can get away with. But rights matter… and that means that each of us has a responsibility to see that they don’t get away with breaching our rights – not individually and not collectively.

Rights come with responsibilities – and our responsibility is to see that everyone gets to enjoy the same rights that we enjoy and take for granted.

Inactivity is acquiescence.

..supporting Bloggers Unite for Human Rights 2009

Remembered: Chinese Internet Maintenance Day

"It was twenty years ago today Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play.."



In the last twenty years China has seen huge economic growth and vast improvements in the wealth and health of individual citizens. But that is not what we are remembering today (or more properly, yesterday)... The clip above is an iconic image of the democracy protests in China in 1989 - but search in Youtube and you will see lots of more graphic and disturbing images of the suppression of the democracy movement there that saw hundreds of protesters killed and many more imprisoned.

That was twenty years ago - and by all accounts an event that within China the authorities try hard to see forgotten. It has been and remains a taboo subject there. In the run up to the anniversary a number of channels of web expression have been blocked... including sites like Twitter and Hotmail. It's hard to imagine living in a country where the state manipulates what news and media we can get access too..

But it seems that China's netizens are nevertheless making their own protest known - with a flush of sites declared off the air for 'Chinese Internet Maintenance Day'.

Freedom of expression, freedom (of unmonitered) communications and a freedom of (uncensored) information. These are not things to take for granted....

Swedish readers might also want to check out Rick Falkvinges blog: Himmelska Fridens Torg, Sverige, 2029


Defending democracy: Vote Piratpartiet for the EU parliament!

Speak up for liberty

"Vi kommer att bli rädda och det är djävligt obehagligt att vara rädd. Men det finns bara ett medel. Hur rädda vi än blir får vi inte tystna.

Tystnar vi blir världen totalitär.  Då går demokratin under"

Anders Widén, forfattare, writes on the threat to democracy -  of laws that hand over our privacy to the state - or worse, to private interests in search of profit.

"We are going to be scared and it's bloody unncomfortable to be scared.  But there is only one way. However scared we are we can't be silent.
If we are silent the world will be totalitarian. Then democracy goes under."

Anders belongs in this quote...

"The foundations of our liberty reside in highly energized and focused minds that insist upon their independence. There are no shortcuts, no structures or doctrines that can be erected, no hallowed documents to be revered, to save us the effort of continually challenging those who would presume to exercise authority over our lives."
— Butler Shaffer

Or as George Orwell put it..

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."

Well said that man!

IPRED... legally illegal

"The court is of the opinion that data retention violates the fundamental right to privacy. It is not necessary in a democratic society. The individual does not provoke the interference but can be intimidated by the risks of abuse and the feeling of being under surveillance [...] The directive [on data retention] does not respect the principle of proportionality guaranteed in Article 8 ECHR, which is why it is invalid."

A court in Wiesbaden has ruled on the legality of implementing the measures called for in IPRED. Sweden meanwhile has passed it into law... despite the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) being the foundation for the Swedish constitution. But hej, what are principles for anyway???

Found: In Pandora's box

I just found this in Rick Falkvinge's blog... a report from the EU on basic rights on the Internet that seems to be fundamentally critical of much that is happening in Europe today to legislate and encroach on personal integrity and privacy rights on the net. Seems almost to good to be true...

And just this time Rick has it in English....

Go Read!

Virtual rights

There is lots happening to regulate use of the internet - and allow unwarranted surveillance of individual use of the medium. Rick Falkvinge has written an excellent piece that highlights the fundamental point that use of the Internet should have the same rights and protection as conventional media. Something that seems to completely have passed regulators by...

..but as it's written in Swedish I'll put my translation of it here:

"People talk of a the Internet being a lawless land with Internet advocates wanting different rules to those that normally apply "In Real Life".. but they are missing an important point - we want the complete opposite. We want the same rules on the net as apply outside the net.

Since the 1960s it's been possible to copy for example a poem or drawing and send it to someone through the post. It is absolutely forbidden for anyone to open a letter to see if it contains a photocopy of something, notwithstanding copyright. The integrity of the post is sacrisanct.
We demand that the same rules apply on the net as off it.

Since the 1700s it has been possible to send letters anonymously and act anonymously to drive social or political questions, send tips to reporters etc.
We demand that the same rules apply on the net as off it.

Since the 1850s it's been possible to get access to all current culture and knowledge without limits, even without paying for your own copy, by using a library.
We demand that the same rules apply on the net as off it.

It is completely tabu for the state or others to register who sends letters to each other or to monitor who reads what at the library.
We demand that the same rules apply on the net as off it.

Since roman times there has been full immunity for the bearer of messages. That's to say that the bearer has no form of responsibility for the content of communication carried between two other parties.
We demand that the same rules apply on the net as off it.

Ever since there have been post and telephone companies it has been absolutely tabu to try and restrict communication to or from specific adresses or telephone numbers based on any moral other viewpoint.
We demand that the same rules apply on the net as off it.

The lawmakers don't seem to understand that civil rights apply even to communication that citizens conduct on the Internet. That lack of understanding sets the whole concept of civil rights at risk."

Ethics and the Olympian ideal?

I've not paid too much attention to the Olympics... or looked into the protests surrounding it - until now. I came across a piece at The Conscious Earth laying out the distasteful history of Chinese intervention in Tibet going back to the invasion in 1948. I have a great respect for the results of China's economic renaissance which has done much to reduce poverty in China ( and hence on a global scale). It's sadly clear that there is still a long way to go to in improving the state ethics there. Read the blog.... I've just copied here the final piece which is a quote from the Dalai Lama

"It is therefore part of our responsibility towards others to ensure that the world we pass on is as healthy, if not healthier, than when we found it. This is not quite such as difficult proposition as it might sound. For although there is a limit to what we as individuals can do, there is no limit to what a universal response might achieve. It is up to us as individuals to do what we can, however little that may be. Just because (our action) seems inconsequential, it does not mean that we should not do it."

A million times "no!"

You are of course familiar with the UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights.. but just as a quick reminder, amongst other things it says…

…Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world….

Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

and...
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

The proposed “FRA law” in Sweden will mean all traffic in cables crossing the border will be copied and then monitored electronically. Traffic matching specific filter parameters will be inspected by FRA staff. Copying and electronically monitoring all traffic are both surely arbitrary interferences in privacy and correspondence?

In Sweden monitoring of an individuals communications is permissible only following a court decision proving evidence of criminal activity. Ingvar Åkesson, FRA’s director, in a reply to a newspaper article by a member of parliament suggests that automatically monitoring all my traffic without first proving the need before a court is OK, because they are not involved in looking for criminal activity (it is only surveillance) and they are going to do it to everyone - and anyway Swedes don't need to worry because they're mainly interested in looking at foreigners.

I’m sorry, but infringing my right to privacy without grounds is not acceptable.. and doing it simultaneously to millions of others does not make it more acceptable. Nor does the fact that you don’t catch anything in your filters worth investigating make it acceptable to monitor me just on the off-chance. That you choose to do this to foreigners over whom you have no legal jurisdiction cannot make it better - that's the kind of thinking that leads to Guantanamo...

Bearing in mind that this law will affect millions of people that don’t live in Sweden and are not Swedish I would just like to stress that last part.

“Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.”

Ingvar Åkesson.. that includes you!