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Council of Europe assembly calls for restrictions on mass surveillance

Xinhua, April 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed a resolution on Tuesday criticizing the use of mass surveillance by national governments and calling on both member and observer states to increase oversight on intelligence communities.

The resolution was passed overwhelmingly by the PACE general assembly, with 132 delegates voting in favor and four voting against with nine abstentions.

"In several countries, a massive 'surveillance industrial complex' has evolved, which risks escaping democratic control and accountability and threatens the free and open character of our societies," declares the resolution, which was originally prepared by Pieter Omtzigt (Netherlands, Group of the European People's Party) for the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights.

The resolution comes in response to revelations after U.S. whistle-blower Edward Snowden disclosed classified files in 2013 which showed the use of extensive surveillance techniques being used at the time by the U.S. National Security Association (NSA) and its international partners in the global intelligence committee, to collect information on individual citizens worldwide.

Omtzigt's original report argues that mass surveillance has limited effects in combating terrorism, but undermines individual liberties of citizens.

"Total surveillance of all our communications and movements is a possibility, total security is not," Omtzigt told the PACE general assembly debate preceding the passing of the resolution.

The resolution calls on national governments to assure that information gathering and analysis requires consent or a court order, to ensure that national intelligence organizations are subject to judicial or parliamentary oversight, and to provide for protection for whistle-blowers, including asylum in "cases of threatened unfair prosecution in their home country."

"In order to rebuild trust, a legal and technical framework must be put in place at the national and international level which ensures the protection of human rights, especially that which secures the right to privacy," the resolution reads. Enditem