[Chapter-delegates] NSA, GCHQ and international treaties

[Elver Loho]

Hi all.

A while back ISOC HQ released a fine statement on the whole NSA debacle:

http://www.internetsociety.org/news/internet-society-statement-importance-open-global-dialogue-regarding-online-privacy

The people who wrote that seem to know their way around international law
and I've been waiting for a proper analysis of NSA and GCHQ activities in
the context of various international treaties from anywhere, but either I
haven't noticed anything like that or nobody has done it.

Basically it would be really useful if a legal expert took Snowden's
revelations about the mass spying activities of the US and various EU
countries and did a point by point analysis of whether any treaties were
broken and how ordinary citizens or nation-states could seek recourse under
those same treaties.

For example, US spying probably violates the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights adopted by the UN in 1966, but the US is not
party to the Covenant's Optional Protocol, which would allow ordinary
citizens to file a complaint at the UN against the US.

There is also the European Convention on Human Rights, where ordinary
citizens probably can file complaints against UK and German spying in the
European Court of Human Rights, as long as they are citizens of any
European country, which has ratified the ECHR. Unlike some fundamental EU
treaties, the ECHR should also cover the activities of intelligence
agencies.

And there are even more treaties, which might be relevant to this spying
case.

ISOC HQ probably has the resources (both monetary and lawyerly) to get such
an analysis done. I'm wondering if I'm the only law nerd here or if anyone
else would be interested in this as well? The NSA scandal is not going away
anytime soon and this kind of analysis could feed meaningful information to
chapters around the world that they could use as substantial talking points.

Best,
Elver

elver.loho at gmail.com
+372 5661 6933
skype: elver.loho
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