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International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Coalition pour la surveillance internationale des libertés civiles
September 29, 2023 - 29 septembre 2023
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Joint statement on urgent need for action to ensure accountable, independent and effective review of the RCMP and CBSA in Bill C-20 | |
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ICLMG 26/09/2023 - Our organizations, with decades of expertise in the areas of immigration and refugee law, criminal law, human rights, international law, civil liberties, and national security, are coming together to ensure that the Public Complaints and Review Commission (PCRC), to be established through Bill C-20, sets up an effective, independent, fair and accessible accountability process, from start to finish, in regard to the activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
This includes:
- Ensuring access and removing barriers for complainants and their advocates, including for systemic complaints
- Preventing the CBSA and RCMP from investigating themselves
- Ensuring recourse and redress as a result of review; and
- Enshrining the ability for judicial review to ensure process is followed.
Signed by:
Amnesty International Canada (English-speaking)
BC Civil Liberties Association
Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers
Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Canadian Immigration Lawyers’ Association
Canadian Muslim Lawyers’ Association
Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council
International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group
Click to read more about our recommended amendments to address these concerns in the proposed legislation, and see annex A for specific legislative wording. Read more - Lire plus
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Canadians deserve to be protected from AI overreach, but Bill C-27’s Artificial Intelligence and Data Act is not up to the task | |
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ICLMG 25/09/23 - Today 45 leading civil society organisations, experts and academics released an open letter to Industry, Science, and Economic Development (ISED) Minister François-Philippe Champagne outlining key concerns with the current draft of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA), currently wrapped into the government’s proposed privacy bill, Bill C-27. The House of Commons Industry and Technology Committee will begin its study of the legislation tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 26.
The signatories are gravely concerned that shoehorning AI regulation into Privacy Bill C-27 will not allow for adequate consideration of AIDA, and will take necessary committee time and attention away from improving the privacy provisions of the bill. While advocating for separating AIDA into its own process, the signatories also provided Minister Champagne with bare minimum bottom-line recommendations for changes to AIDA.
Key recommendations of the letter include:
- Recognizing privacy as a fundamental human right;
- Removing AI regulation from ISED’s sole jurisdiction, given ISED’s mandate to bolster the AI industry conflicts with the public interest in regulating the potential dangers of AI;
- Addressing poorly defined language in AIDA that create loopholes and a lack of enforceable rules;
- Committing to far more active consultation with stakeholders beyond industry insiders; to ensure AIDA and subsequent AI rules are well balanced and rights-protecting; and
- Expanding AI regulation to apply to both the public and private sector, including government security agencies.
We know people in Canada are concerned: in the past two years, more than 10,000 signatures and letters were sent to government officials calling for strong action to address the impacts of AI and facial recognition. Since November 2021, more than 29,500 signatures have been collected by OpenMedia petitions calling for new privacy laws in Canada, and more than 17,800 messages have been sent to the government calling for enhanced personal privacy protections.
“Excluding private sector AI tech developed for government intelligence, defence and national security purposes from any form of regulation means a free pass for some of the most potentially harmful AI tools. If the government is serious about protecting the rights of people in Canada, AIDA isn’t up to task.” –Tim McSorley, National Coordinator at the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group Read more
Version française: Les défenseur.es des droits de la personne exigent que la réglementation sur l’IA soit dûment étudiée
Some media coverage:
IT World Canada: Experts urge changes to proposed Canadian privacy, AI laws before today's hearing
The Canadian Press: Proposed AI regulations need more scrutiny, groups urge Ottawa
La Presse canadienne: Intelligence artificielle: Des organisations et des experts soutiennent que la loi est « inadéquate »
ONLINE EVENT: What Will AI Mean for Free Expression? Oct 3, 4PM ET
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ICLMG’s Brief on Bill C-27, the Digital Charter Implementation Act | |
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ICLMG 29/09/2023 - Bill C-27, An Act to enact the Consumer Privacy Protection Act, the Personal Information and Data Protection Tribunal Act and the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act and to make consequential and related amendments to other Acts, or the Digital Charter Implementation Act, has been introduced by the federal government with the promise that it would enhance privacy protections, adequately regulate AI and protect human rights. The bill, however, is not up to the task.
We have recently published a joint open letter with 45 leading civil society organisations, experts and academics outlining key concerns with the bill. We have also sent a brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry and Technology for their current study of Bill C-27. Our submission covers the following areas and general recommendations:
1. The Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CPPA)
a) Recognizing privacy as a human right
b) National security-related exemptions to consent must be removed
2. The Personal Information and Data Tribunal Act (PIDTA)
3. The Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA)
a) Over-arching concerns
b) Expanding scope of coverage of AIDA
c) Definition of harms must be extended to include group-based harms
d) Exclusion of national security related technology must be rescinded
e) Need for independent oversight and review
Given that our expertise is on the impact of anti-terrorism and national security on human rights and not specifically on consumer privacy protection, there are areas of this bill that we have not commented on. We would emphasize, though, that our silence on certain sections does not signal support, given that we are aware that there are several other aspects of this bill that privacy, consumer rights, human rights and civil liberties organizations are raising concerns over.
In line with our mandate, however, we have shared serious specific concerns regarding national security related exemptions:
- We are deeply concerned that Bill C-27 maintains overly-broad exceptions to consent when it comes to the collection, retention, use and disclosure of personal information for national security reasons. We believe that these provisions (s. 47 and 48) must be removed from C-27. If they remain, though, such activities should only be possible, by law, if there are "reasonable grounds to believe that the information relates to an imminent threat to national security, the defence of Canada or the conduct of international affairs."
- Despite the exponential growth in interest for the use of artificial intelligence tools by governments for counterterrorism and national security purposes as well as their serious risks to human rights, Bill C-27 shockingly excludes the application of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act to:
"…a product, service or activity that is under the direction or control of
(a) the Minister of National Defence;
(b) the Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service;
(c) the Chief of the Communications Security Establishment; or
(d) any other person who is responsible for a federal or provincial department or agency and who is prescribed by regulation."
This exclusion of national security related technology must be rescinded.
Read our full brief for more details on each section, our recommendations and specific legislative language for amendments: Read more - Lire plus
Michael Geist: Industry Minister Champagne Broke the Bill C-27 Hearings on Privacy and AI Regulation in Only 12 Minutes
Signal’s Meredith Whittaker: AI is fundamentally ‘a surveillance technology’
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Global civil society and experts statement: Stop facial recognition surveillance now | |
ICLMG is one of the 180 signatories to this statement. | |
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EDRi 26/09/23 - Facial recognition, and other forms of biometric surveillance, have the potential to eviscerate our rights and freedoms in public spaces. From the tracking of emotions and supposedly ‘suspicious behaviours’ in Europe, to the suppression of protesters in Hong Kong, to the violent false arrests of black men in the US, facial recognition has been turning us into walking barcodes across the world.
Today, 26 September, a coalition of civil society groups representing a broad range of human and digital rights, anti-racism, migration and social justice causes are joined by eminent individuals to call on governments around the world to put a stop to these dangerous practices. As groups and individuals working on the front-lines to tackle and contest the harms caused by AI-based surveillance, we are acutely aware of just how dangerous and undemocratic these systems are.
We demand that our governments take all measures possible – from ceasing existing pilot programmes to passing and enforcing strong policies and laws – to protect us from these systems. That’s why we are part of the call of 180 civil society actors demanding police, authorities and private companies stop facial recognition now. Read more - Lire plus
Joint statement: EU legislators must close dangerous loophole in AI Act
EU policymakers: regulate police technology! Civil society calls on the EU to draw limits on surveillance technology in the Artificial Intelligence Act
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Canadian tech company allegedly implicated in foreign spying received millions from Ontario government | |
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The Toronto Star 26/09/2023 - A Canadian tech company that has received millions of dollars in funding from the Ontario government is allegedly implicated in a spy incident involving an Egyptian presidential candidate, according to a new report.
Researchers from The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School shared in a press release Friday that they believe, with “high confidence,” technology produced by the Waterloo, Ont.-based firm Sandvine was used in multiple attempts to infect spyware technology into the device of Ahmed Altantawy, a former Egyptian lawmaker who recently announced his intentions to run for Egypt’s highest office.
This isn’t the first time Sandvine products have been used to hack foreign internet users, block internet access and repress government dissidents, previous reports suggest. But experts say the latest incident demonstrates the Canadian government isn’t doing enough to crack down on the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware, despite pledging earlier this year to do just that. Read more - Lire plus
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Fearing Ethnic Cleansing, 90,000 Armenians Flee Nagorno-Karabakh After Azerbaijan Military Blitz | |
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DemocracyNow! 29/09/2023 - The government of Nagorno-Karabakh is dissolving itself after decades of struggle for autonomy from Azerbaijan, just days after Azerbaijani forces carried out a military blitz to seize the breakaway region, which has a majority of ethnic Armenians. More than half the territory’s 120,000 people have reportedly fled to Armenia, while thousands more remain without food, shelter and clean drinking water. “Basically, this is ethnic cleansing,” says Roubina Margossian, managing editor of EVN Report, an independent media outlet based in Armenia. “This is the victory of a dictatorship over a democracy.” [...]
“Why is this happening?” is basically the question that we’re going to try to answer, but there’s no one and short answer. This is, however, happening after 10 months of these people being starving, being in a blockade, being threatened, their lives constantly under threat. This is happening after they’ve been held hostage by Azerbaijan, and all of a sudden they’re told they can leave or reintegrate into Azerbaijan — this is like the Azerbaijani formal term, “reintegrate” — after being attacked. And on the 19th of September, Azerbaijan, as you called it, organized a blitz attack, calling it an “anti-terrorist measure,” which very much sounds like Russia’s “special operation” in Ukraine. So, after Azerbaijan’s special operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, you know, hundreds of civilians died.
And now these people have no option whether to — they have no options. If they want to survive, they have to leave. And they are leaving. And the assumption is, after a couple of days, there will be not a single Armenian left in Artsakh. Whoever is left will probably be arrested, as we saw with Ruben Vardanyan’s case. He was arrested upon — at the checkpoint and Lachin corridor. Reuters has reported that Azerbaijan has extensive blacklists of people they’re willing to, they want — looking for, they want to arrest. What charges, no one really is sure of, made-up charges. So this is the situation right now on the ground. People are fleeing for their lives because, time and again, they know there is no surviving Azerbaijan. Read more - Lire plus
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India raids 53 sites nationwide as crackdown on Sikh separatists deepens | |
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CNN 29/09/2023 - India’s anti-terror agency has raided 53 sites across seven states and union territories in a crackdown on what it says are “terrorists” and “gangsters,” some of whom it alleges have links to Sikh separatist groups. The National Investigative Agency (NIA) said Wednesday it had seized pistols, ammunition and a large number of digital devices during the raids, and that among those it had detained were several people with suspected links to “pro-Khalistan” groups.
“Khalistan” is a reference to a separatist movement that seeks to create a homeland for Sikhs in the Punjab region of India. News of the raid comes as India remains in a tense diplomatic standoff with Canada, following allegations by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that India may have been involved in the killing in British Columbia of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh Canadian who was a vocal advocate of Khalistan. India, which has strenuously denied Trudeau’s claims, has previously accused Nijjar of being a terrorist with links to the Khalistan movement and of “trying to radicalize the Sikh community across the world.” But it has long accused multiple foreign countries of harboring what it describes as Sikh militants within their diaspora communities.
The NIA said Wednesday the latest raids “relate to conspiracies of targeted killings, terror funding of pro-Khalistan outfits, extortion, etc. by the gangsters, many of whom are lodged in various jails or are operating from various foreign countries, including Pakistan, Canada, Malaysia, Portugal and Australia.” “Many of the criminals and gangsters who were earlier leading gangs in India have fled abroad in recent years and are now pursuing their terror and violence related activities from there, as per NIA investigations,” the statement said. “These criminals have been engaged in planning and commissioning serious crimes, including contract and revenge killings, in association with criminals lodged in jails across India,” it added. The operation spanned the states of Punjab, Harayana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand, and also included the union territories of Delhi and Chandigarh.
New Delhi has responded angrily to Trudeau’s claims and the deepening spat has seen both nations expel senior diplomats in reciprocal moves, raising the prospect of an awkward rift between key partners of the US. Things escalated further when India suspended visa services for Canadian citizens over what it said were “security threats” against diplomats in Canada. Though Modi is yet to speak publicly about the growing dispute, Indian authorities last week announced an “intensified crackdown” on what it says is a “Khalistani terrorist campaign.” Last week, the NIA promised a cash reward for five individuals who they accuse of “spreading terror” in the state of Punjab. Read more - Lire plus
What does international law say about targeted killings?
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India: Government weaponizing terrorism financing watchdog recommendations against civil society | |
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Amnesty International 27/09/2023 - Indian authorities are exploiting the recommendations of a global terrorism financing and money laundering watchdog to target civil society groups and activists and deliberately hinder their work, said Amnesty International in a new briefing released today.
“Weaponizing counter-terrorism: India’s exploitation of terrorism financing assessments to target civil society” reveals how the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—a global body responsible for tackling terrorism financing and money laundering—have been abused by the Indian authorities to bring in draconian laws in a coordinated campaign to stifle the non-profit sector. These laws are in turn used to bring terrorism-related charges and, amongst other things, to prevent organizations and activists from accessing essential funds.
“Under the guise of combatting terrorism, the Indian government has leveraged the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations to tighten its arsenal of financial and counter-terrorism laws which are routinely misused to target and silence critics. The FATF must hold the Indian authorities accountable for the persistent weaponization of its recommendations,” said Aakar Patel, chair of the board at Amnesty International India. “By abusing these laws, the authorities in India have failed to comply with both FATF standards and international human rights law.”
Non-governmental organizations in India require a “foreign contribution licence” to access foreign funds as established by the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act(FCRA). The introduction of this bill in 2006 coincided with India becoming an observer state of the FATF. Later in 2010, amendments were made to the act to improve India’s ‘non-compliant’ status. Since then, however, and specifically in the last ten years, more than 20,600 NGOs have had their licences cancelled with nearly 6,000 of these cancellations occurring since the beginning of 2022.
In a survey by Amnesty International, 11 out of 16 NGOs (working on issues relating to minorities, marginalized groups and climate change) confirmed the arbitrary renunciation of their foreign contribution licences through suspensions, cancellations, and non-renewals. The organizations said that the authorities provided only vague reasons, including accusing them of “bringing disrepute to public institutions”, “working against public or national interest” or alluding to their human rights work. Most of the groups Amnesty International spoke to said they have had to reduce their staff by 50 to 80 percent, drastically affecting the scope of their work. “Almost all our programmes have been shut down … [We are] surviving just to fight the legal cases that have been filed against us,” one activist said.
The 2020 and earlier amendments to the FCRA, however, do not conform with FATF’s Recommendation 8, which requires that laws and regulations target only those Non-Profit Organizations that a country has identified — through a careful, targeted “risk-based” analysis — as vulnerable to terrorism financing abuse. None of the NGOs Amnesty International spoke with were contacted for a “risk-assessment” by the Indian government, despite FATF having specifically highlighted the lack of outreach in its 2010 and 2013 Mutual Evaluation Reports. Such actions also do not meet the guidelines laid down by the FATF’s interpretative note on Recommendation 8 which aims to minimize the unintended consequences faced by the non-profit sector by calling for specific and targeted counter-terrorism measures.
The enactment of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) and the 2012 amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), India’s main counter-terrorism law, were among the pre-conditions to India becoming the 34th member of the FATF. Over time, amendments to these laws, based on the FATF’s recommendations in India’s last evaluations in 2010 and 2013, led to FATF changing India’s rating from “Non-Compliant” to “Largely Compliant”.
However, United Nations’ special rapporteurs have repeatedly called out the contentious and overbroad provisions of UAPA which both violate international human rights law and standards and contradict the FATF’s own guiding principles. The Indian authorities have ignored all such calls and have continued to apply these laws in a discriminatory manner against dissenting voices such as Muslim student activist Umar Khalid, Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez, journalist Irfan Mehraj and 16 others (in the Bhima Koregaon case), ten of whom continue to be detained since 2018 without trial on allegations of ‘funding terrorism’, amongst other charges. The PMLA has also been used to target Amnesty International forcing the organization to halt its operations in the country in September 2020.
“The motivation behind these measures is purely political and designed to create an environment hostile to international organisations. The FATF must not allow these laws to be used by the Indian authorities to systematically erode the rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression in the country, particularly of civil society actors and religious minorities,” said Aakar Patel.
Amnesty International recommends that the UAPA, PMLA and FCRA should be repealed or significantly amended to bring them in line with International human rights standards. Most importantly, not-for-profit organizations, including the ones that have faced adverse actions under the three laws, must be consulted in the FATF’s upcoming assessment of India. The Indian authorities must ensure that the exercise of the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly are effectively protected. Read more - Lire plus
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British Volunteers Killed in Ukraine Were Prosecuted for Backing Kurds Against ISIS | |
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Jacobin 24/09/23 - Prior to traveling to Ukraine, both men had been caught up in a wave of repression targeting UK nationals with links to the direct-democratic, women-led “Rojava revolution” and in particular Syrian Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG). They suffered irrevocable harm and distress through this official persecution — even though the UK is formally allied with the YPG in its fight against ISIS.
Dan Burke spent seven months jailed on remand on terror charges — that is, for fighting against ISIS — before the case was abruptly dropped. Sam Newey, then just 19, was charged despite never even planning to go to Syria. According to those who know them, this ill-treatment played a part in their decision to join Ukraine’s defense. [...]
Burke was a former member of an elite British Army paratrooper regiment who had deployed to Afghanistan, before being driven to join the YPG’s existential war against ISIS following the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing which killed twenty-two people in his hometown. Burke met Dan Newey early in his tour in Rojava, where he not only fought ISIS with backing from Royal Air Force air strikes, but reportedly provided anti-ISIS intel to the British intelligence services. In March 2019, the Syrian Kurds were finally able to announce the eradication of ISIS as a territorial force. Burke, who had already returned to Europe, might have expected a hero’s welcome — or, at least, to be left alone. [...]
But the Kurds weren’t only opposed by ISIS. Turkey had long been violently opposed to any Kurdish self-determination, and the “Rojava revolution” — which united millions of Kurds, Arabs, and minorities in a Kurdish-led federation just across the border — was a nightmare come true for Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s authoritarian Turkish government.
In 2018 and 2019, Turkey launched two successive, devastating invasions against the region, killing hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians as part of a systematic campaign of demographic change. In occupied regions, the progressive, Kurdish-led administration was replaced by a patchwork of Turkish-backed jihadi and criminal militias, including several sanctioned by the United States for committing war crimes against Kurds, women and Yezidis, while sheltering scores of former ISIS members.
As a result, international volunteers in the region now found themselves facing down the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member with the second-largest army: Turkey. While the UK had long criminalized the Kurdish movement as a whole, and disapproved of UK volunteers traveling to Rojava, this shift steadily emboldened prosecutors to target UK internationalists. Then–home secretary Sajid Javid announced never-enacted plans to make traveling to Rojava an automatic criminal offense, giving internationalists a one-month ultimatum to leave the region.
Dan Burke and Sam Newey were among half a dozen UK volunteers to face a string of terrorism charges, as the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service tried (and failed at) a range of strategies to secure prosecutions. As Dan Newey was traveling back to Rojava to rejoin the fight against Turkey and ISIS, his brother and father were arrested and charged with financing “terror,” on the basis that his family had sent him a gift of £150 while he was holidaying en route to Syria. While Dan Newey himself made it to that country, Dan Burke was also detained, accused of facilitating Dan Newey’s travel and aiming to return to Syria himself.
The case ultimately collapsed, but not before Dan Burke had spent seven months on remand in jail, suffering the bitter indignity of being labeled “Jihadi Dan” despite devoting his life to fighting Jihadist terrorism. “I’m not a terrorist, you know I’m not a terrorist. I’ve done nothing but fight for this country. This is a f**king joke,” Burke told police upon his arrest. Sam Newey and his father spent months on bail, losing work and facing raids by police at home and university, in what the father, Paul, described as a “nightmare.”
To date, no UK citizen has been successfully prosecuted for joining the YPG. The UK’s formal ties to the Syrian Kurdish movement make any conviction highly unlikely. So why bring the charges at all? It’s highly likely this systematic persecution is meant to appease the UK’s Turkish allies. The linked arrests came following Turkey’s 2019 invasion of Rojava and in the same month as president Erdoğan’s diplomatic visit to London. Notably, Burke’s lawyers claim that the prosecution was forced to withdraw its case after being asked to disclose evidence of Turkish pressure.
The failed prosecutions are only one way the British authorities work hand-in-hand with Turkey, undermining their nominal support for the Kurdish fight against ISIS. Iida Käyhkö, who researches the criminalization of the Kurdish movement for Royal Holloway’s Information Security Group, explains:
One of Turkey’s main intelligence priorities is the surveillance and disruption of the Kurdish movement, and Turkey pursues this priority aggressively with its intelligence partners, with the UK as a front-runner. The stress and fear endured by Sam Newey and his father throughout the investigation and prosecution should be seen as an absolute indictment of the use of counter-terrorism legislation to target those fighting against ISIS.
This reality was made apparent throughout the recent controversy over Finland and Sweden’s bids for NATO membership. Here, too, Turkey focused on the criminalization, arrest, and deportation of members of the Kurdish community in the Nordic countries as a quid pro quo for dropping its veto over the two states’ accession to the security alliance.
As Kaykho notes, Britain has long been particularly enthusiastic in its security cooperation with Turkey. The Kurdish community suffers regular, invasive home raids, while a controversial power established under Britain’s anti-terror law enables the police to question people without charge or the right to silence, enabling regular harassment of the Kurdish community and international supporters. I myself have been detained and questioned by British anti-terror police, as well as banned from the Schengen Zone, on the basis of my work and reporting from Rojava. These stops, which occur without the right to silence and without criminal charge, have been on the rise following Erdoğan’s reelection in May.
The two countries’ alignment as core NATO members scrabbling for power and influence on the fringes of Europe mean Britain is more than happy to cooperate with Turkey in criminalizing the Kurdish movement, securing concessions, security cooperation, and trade and arms deals in return. As a NATO member Britain relies on a “strong” Turkish state, and this state demonstrates and reinforces its strength through the repression of democratic expression and Kurdish self-determination. Read more - Lire plus
British journalist held by police at Luton airport for five hours without arrest
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Spain: The Prosecutor's Office now considers 'Extinction Rebellion' and Futuro Vegetal as "terrorist" groups | |
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Informacion 12/09/23 - The State Attorney General's Office includes in its new report (pages 481 and 482) the young climate activism groups ' Extinction Rebellion ' (baptized in Spain as 'Rebellion or extinction') and Futuro Vegetal in the “terrorism” section, and under the subsection of “radical environmentalism”, as announced by Efe Verde. In recent months, these groups have become increasingly more prominent in climate protests with direct sabotage actions against private jets or megayachts due to their high emissions.
The 2022 report, presented at the beginning of the judicial year this Thursday, details the 26 arrests of environmental activists that took place last year, motivated by protest actions such as illegal gatherings, roadblocks, damage to public property and private messages and publications that claimed said damages, among other things.
In its report, the Prosecutor's Office highlights the growing presence of Futuro Vegetal (FV) in sabotage actions to demand climate action (this group, specifically, focuses on demanding the elimination of subsidies to the meat industry), and makes reference to the way in which these groups have escalated their protests to achieve a greater impact, with actions such as sticking to some of the paintings in the Prado Museum. [...] With these sabotages, this entity wants to draw attention to the climate emergency that the planet is experiencing and the need for governments to act against certain means of transport dedicated to leisure by wealthy elites, with a high climate impact.
Amnesty International calls for immediate rectification
Amnesty International, Unidas Podemos and Alianza Verde have demanded this Monday that the State Attorney General's Office (FGE) "immediately" remove environmental organizations such as Futuro Vegetal and Extinction Rebellion (XR) from the chapter of its 2022 report where it refers to "terrorism." national", although fiscal sources consulted by Europa Press clarify that it is a mere alert, the same one that the State security forces and bodies have been making in their reports.
"Amnesty International regrets that the “broad and vague” definition of terrorism crimes in the Penal Code allows peaceful protest actions, such as those carried out by these environmental groups, to be classified as terrorist acts. The organization has called on countless occasions for the reform of the terrorism crimes of the Penal Code to ensure that they do not contain excessively general or imprecise definitions nor do they go beyond the definition of “terrorist acts” formulated by the UN rapporteur on this matter. Read more - Lire plus (In Spanish - To read the rest, right click in the article's text and select "Translate to English" in Chrome; or use Google Translate)
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Lawsuit by Islamic rights group says US terror watchlist woes continue even after names are removed | |
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AP 18/09/2023 - Mohamed Khairullah, the longest serving Muslim mayor in the U.S., thought he had finally resolved years of airport searches and border interrogations in 2021, when his name appeared to be removed from the government’s secret terror watchlist. Then, earlier this year, the discriminatory treatment renewed when Khairullah, the mayor of Prospect Park, New Jersey, found himself uninvited from a White House celebration of the Eid al-Fatr holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, without explanation.
A lawsuit filed Monday by an Islamic civil rights group on behalf of Khairullah and other plaintiffs says his exclusion from the White House event demonstrates that Muslims face negative repercussions even after they are able to clear their name from the list.
The Secret Service declined to comment on the lawsuit. “As we stated in the past, we were not able to grant entry to the Mayor at the White House and we regret any inconvenience that may have caused,” the agency said in an emailed statement.
At a press conference in Newark, New Jersey, on Monday, Khairullah said his problems began in 2019, after he returned to his native Syria to document atrocities committed by the regime of Bashar Assad as Assad was engaged in a civil war to stay in power. He said his apparent placement on the U.S. government’s watchlist has rendered him a second-class citizen in his adopted country, and that his apparent removal from the list has failed to fully restore his rights. “If I don’t do something now, my children and their children will probably be second-class citizens based on their ethnic and religious background,” he said.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, is a broad challenge to the watchlist’s constitutionality, and one of several that the Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed over the watchlist’s 20 years of existence. CAIR’s lawsuits contend that in nearly every instance, the government places names on the list without valid reason, and that Muslims who are on the list face scrutiny only because of anti-Muslim discrimination. The watchlist has only continued to grow. And much of what is known about the list has come from answers CAIR has received from the government as it defends its practices. The list is now estimated to include 1.5 million people, the overwhelming majority of whom are Muslim, said CAIR attorneys Hannah Mullen and Justin Sadowsky, who helped prepare Monday’s lawsuit. Read more - Lire plus
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Guantanamo 'forever prisoner' files lawsuit against CIA torture architects | |
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MEE 20/09/2023 - Lawyers for one of Guantanamo's "forever prisoners" have filed a lawsuit against the two psychologists who helped conceive the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques, which have been widely seen and condemned as torture. In a federal court in the US state of Washington, lawyers representing Abu Zubaydah, whose given name is Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn, filed the lawsuit against James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, who were recruited by the CIA in 2002 to design and help conduct interrogations on suspects captured in Afghanistan and elsewhere. "In proposing the program to the US government, Mitchell and Jessen misled officials regarding the scope and severity of the tactics that they would ultimately use on Abu Zubaydah," reads the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday.
"In practice, Mitchell and Jessen used torture and cruel and inhuman treatment to force Abu Zubaydah and other subjects into a state of "learned helplessness". The lawyers for Abu Zubaydah added that the torture of the Guantanamo detainee did not lead to valuable intelligence, but the two psychologists "were no longer actually seeking information". "Rather, they were using Abu Zubaydah as a guinea pig for untested interrogation methods, laying the groundwork for what provided them a hugely lucrative contracting business to provide detention and interrogation personnel to the CIA and the US Defense Department," the lawsuit said.
According to a Senate intelligence report, the two contractors were paid $81m by the US government. Abu Zubaydah, a Saudi-born Palestinian man, was captured nearly two decades ago and held, according to his lawyers, at numerous CIA "black sites" overseas. According to a Senate intelligence report, Abu Zubaydah was interrogated using techniques that amounted to torture, including being waterboarded 83 times in one month, hung naked from a ceiling, and deprived of sleep for 11 straight days.
Another technique that was approved by the CIA, recently revealed after the declassification of documents in 2022, was called "walling". It involved placing the detainee's heels against a plywood wall "which had flexibility to it", and a rolled-up towel was put around the person's neck. "The interrogators would then grab the ends of the towel in front of and below the detainee's face and shove [the detainee] backwards into the wall, never letting go of the towel," the report said. One of the interrogators said the goal was to "bounce" the detainee off the wall. In 2006, Abu Zubaydah was transferred to the Guantanamo Bay military prison, where he is being held to this day without charge. The court on Tuesday issued a summons to Mitchell and Jessen. Read more - Lire plus
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RICO and Domestic Terrorism Charges Against Cop City Activists Send a Chilling Message | |
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ACLU 21/09/23 - The 2020 police killing of George Floyd launched the largest protests in U.S. history and a nationwide reckoning with systemic racism and police brutality. Now, Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr has shamefully invoked Floyd’s killing and the subsequent uprising in a sweeping criminal indictment of activists protesting a $90 million Atlanta police training center known as “Cop City.” Carr’s actions must be understood as extreme intimidation tactics that we need to resist. They must not set a precedent.
On September 5, Carr obtained indictments against 61 people, alleging violations of the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law, over ongoing efforts to halt construction of Cop City. Indicted activists, including a protest observer, face steep penalties of up to 20 years in prison. Three bail fund organizers face additional money laundering charges, and five people also face state domestic terrorism charges. The indictment’s theory is shocking, and its combination of charges is unprecedented.
Georgia’s legislature intended RICO to combat organized crime, not to punish protest, civil disobedience, or isolated crimes. Yet according to Carr, opposing construction of Cop City amounts to a criminal conspiracy under the state RICO statute. To make its case, the indictment relies on people’s beliefs and community organizing as the connective tissue for sweeping criminal liability. It devotes 25 pages to vilifying Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTAF), the grassroots movement opposing Cop City’s construction, identifying its “beginnings” in the nationwide protests against George Floyd’s murder and protests in Georgia against the police killing of Atlanta resident Rayshard Brooks, and calling out the movement’s “anarchist ideals.” It paints the provision of mutual aid, the advocacy of collectivism, and even the publishing of zines as hallmarks of a criminal enterprise. In doing so, it flies in the face of First Amendment protections for speech, assembly, and association. [...]
Taken together, these disproportionate charges send a clear message: Think twice before voicing your dissent. Unfortunately, punitive intimidation tactics against civil rights, social justice, and environmental activists is not new. We do not forget that civil rights movement leaders like Rep. John Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were labeled security threats and investigated, monitored, and often arrested — including in Georgia — based on their organizing and civil disobedience in the pursuit of equality. If Georgia’s RICO and “domestic terrorism” laws had been available to prosecutors in the civil rights era, they could easily have been misused to persecute activists.
Today, there is legitimate concern that Georgia’s sweeping indictment could form a playbook for other prosecutors and state officials seeking to stifle political dissent. Several states now have RICO and domestic terrorism laws on the books. But Attorney General Carr’s actions must not set a precedent. Instead, Georgia should honor a better precedent. Atlanta a critical hub of the modern civil rights movement — and the protection of protest is integral to both our rights and our democracy. Attorney General Carr’s trumped-up and excessive charges against Cop City activists should be dropped immediately. Read more - Lire plus
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U.S. Counterintel Buys Access to the Backbone of the Internet to Hunt Foreign Hackers | |
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404media 26/09/2023 - A federal counterintelligence agency tracking hackers has bought data harvested from the backbone of the internet by a private company because it was easier and took less time than getting similar data from the NSA, according to internal U.S. government documents. According to the documents, going through an agency like the NSA could take “days,” whereas a private contractor could provide the same data instantly.
The news is yet another example of a government agency turning to the private sector for novel datasets that the public is likely unaware are being collected and then sold.
404 Media obtained the documents under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Defense Security Service (DSS)—now known as the Defence Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). According to procurement records, the agency has spent millions of dollars over several years on technology from cyber threat intelligence company Team Cymru.
Although Team Cymru obviously does not have the same capabilities as the NSA, one of the most powerful intelligence agencies in the world, the mention of the NSA in the procurement documents shows what can attract agencies to commercially purchase data rather than work with other parts of the government to obtain it—speed and ease of access. In some cases that can include data which may typically require a warrant, such as location data. The newly released documents also provide greater insight into what exactly some agencies want to use the internet data for, with the documents mentioning use cases that go beyond defending government networks.
The internal documents, which outline why DSS needed access to data, shows the agency went to a contractor that was an affiliate of Team Cymru which deals with public agencies. Team Cymru is a cybersecurity firm which harvests sensitive data through relationships with internet service providers (ISPs) without the informed consent of people or organizations using those ISPs. The sort of data that Team Cymru collects is called netflow, which can show what server communicated with another on the wider internet, and can potentially let analysts follow activity through virtual private networks. This sort of connection data may ordinarily only be available to the entity or individual that runs the server themselves or their ISP. Team Cymru, meanwhile, taps into a part of the internet that is invisible to most people but crucial for its functioning, collects that data, and then sells access to private industry and government agencies. Read more - Lire plus
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France : le harcèlement judiciaire contre la journaliste Ariane Lavrilleux est une atteinte intolérable à la liberté de la presse | |
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fidh 22/09/23 - Arrêter une journaliste pour n’avoir fait que son travail est une pratique qui va à l’encontre du respect de la liberté de la presse, ainsi que de la liberté d’information dans une société démocratique. Pourtant, le 19 septembre 2023, le domicile de la journaliste d’investigation Ariane Lavrilleux a été perquisitionné par des agents de la Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure française (DGSI).
La journaliste a ensuite été placée en garde à vue dans le cadre d’une enquête pour « compromission du secret de la défense nationale » et « révélation d’informations pouvant conduire à identifier un agent protégé », ouverte en juillet 2022, sur la base d’une plainte déposée par le Ministère des Armées. Cette plainte fait suite à la publication par le média d’investigation indépendant français Disclose, en novembre 2021, de la série d’enquêtes « Les mémos de la terreur », co-signée par Ariane Lavrilleux, et révélant la complicité de la France dans une série d’exécutions arbitraires orchestrée par le gouvernement égyptien entre 2016 et 2018. Ariane Lavrilleux a été libérée le 20 septembre 2023, après 39 heures en garde à vue, et l’enquête se poursuit.
« Le travail des journalistes révélant des violations des droits humains est indispensable au fonctionnement d’une démocratie saine, la liberté d’information ne se négocie pas. Nous sommes effarés par l’arrestation d’Anne Lavrilleux. C’est un véritable scandale d’État. Nous exigeons que ce harcèlement judiciaire cesse et attendons des excuses de la part de l’exécutif, » a réagi Gerald Staberock, Secrétaire général de l’OMCT.
Parmi les révélations des « Mémos de la terreur », les journalistes ont mis au jour l’existence de l’Opération Sirli, opération « antiterroriste » des renseignements français, utilisée et détournée par les autorités égyptiennes, qui ont exécuté en dehors de tout cadre juridique ce qui semble être des trafiquants d’armes, de drogue ou de migrants à la frontière libyenne. Des journalistes ont prouvé que les autorités françaises avaient connaissance que leurs informations servaient à commettre ces crimes extra-judiciaires. Aucune mesure n’a pourtant été prise, notamment pour ne pas compromettre les accords de vente d’armes conclus avec l’Égypte.
« Le travail de journaliste lanceur d’alerte doit être protégé par les autorités, pas réprimé, » a déclaré Antoine Madelin, directeur du plaidoyer de la FIDH. « Ariane Lavrilleux a mis en lumière la manière avec laquelle la France s’est rendue complice de violations des droits humains, ouvrant la voie à l’établissement des responsabilités pour ces crimes. Plutôt que d’intimider des journalistes, les enquêteurs feraient mieux de chercher à savoir pourquoi et comment la France a failli à ses obligations internationales et à mettre en place une stratégie efficace de poursuite des auteurs des violations. » Lire plus
France: Journalists decry 'worrying' arrest of investigative reporter
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Interpol: multi-million dollar “predictive analytics” system under construction | |
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statewatch 21/09/23 - The International Criminal Police Organisation, Interpol, is building a vast data-processing platform called INSIGHT that is ultimately supposed to provide police forces around the globe with “predictive analytics” generated from Interpol’s internal data, information received from its member states, “external” sources such as commercial databases, and “visual, video, audio recognition, facial and bio-data matching.” The US State Department has so far committed more than $12 million for the project. Read more - Lire plus
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Bangladesh: Government must cease enforced disappearances, stop harassment of the victims’ families and hold perpetrators accountable | |
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fidh 30/08/23 - A Joint Statement by Anti-Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN), Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Capital Punishment Justice Project (CPJP), International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Eleos Justice, Monash University, Maayer Daak, Odhikar, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) on the occasion of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances 2023.
We, the undersigned organisations, are gravely concerned over the continued commission of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh and the denial of access to justice for the victims. The acts of enforced disappearance occur with impunity in Bangladesh and have become an institutionalised practice of repression in violation of Articles 9 and 16 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Articles 31, 32 and 33 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. The government uses enforced disappearances as a tool to suppress political movements and silence dissenting voices, creating a climate of fear in the country.
Government agencies have continued to subject enforced disappearance to members of opposition parties and dissidents for the past decade and a half. In recent times, “short-term” disappearances have occurred, where law enforcement officers have later shown the disappeared persons as arrested on various criminal charges, including under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 2009; Explosive Substances Act, 1908; and Digital Security Act, 2018. Furthermore, disappeared persons are reportedly being tortured while in custody.
According to Odhikar, from January to June 2023, at least 16 persons were subjected to enforced disappearance. Among them, 15 persons were later resurfaced alive, while information regarding one victim could not be ascertained. Most of the disappeared persons are known to be opposition party activists and dissidents who have participated in anti-government protests in the lead up to the parliamentary elections in January 2024. Among the disappeared victims, some persons were released after being kept incommunicado in undisclosed facilities and many were handed over to the police and/or produced before a court after being implicated in cases of terrorism or arson. This has now become a common pattern of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh. The police usually refuse to register complaints or reports of the crime of enforced disappearances and instead harass the victims’ families.
Some disappeared victims have been labelled as “Islamic militants”. For example, a madrassa teacher, his wife and their six-month-old son were allegedly forcibly disappeared for a month before being produced in a Dhaka court in an Islamic militancy case. On 30 April 2023, they were picked up by plainclothes law enforcement officers from SA Sarkar Road of Mymensingh Town and put into a van displaying a police sticker. When their relatives went to the police station to file a complaint, the police refused to register it. The family searched for them at police stations, and the offices of the Detective Branch (DB) of police and the Rapid Action Battalion. However, no state agency acknowledged their arrest. A month after their disappearance, on 30 May, the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) Unit showed them as arrested. Madrassa teacher Ikramul Haque Milan and his wife Dewan Faria Afrin Anika are currently detained.
Family members of the victims of enforced disappearances have been subjected to intimidation and harassment by members of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. In recent months, members of the National Security Intelligence (NSI) and the DB repeatedly visited the houses of victims of enforced disappearances throughout the country, interrogating the family members of the disappeared and asking them various questions mostly relating to the whereabouts of their missing relative. The government officials also inquired about the victims’ families’ income sources and collected their National Identity cards and other documents.
We, the undersigned organisations, call on the Bangladeshi government to put an end to enforced disappearances and harassment of victims’ families. All perpetrators must be brought to justice. Bangladesh should also ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, recognise the competence of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, and adopt national legislation criminalising enforced disappearances.
Bangladesh should give UN human rights experts, including the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, access to the country to assess the situation of enforced disappearances to ensure justice for victims. We urge members of the UN Human Rights Council to call on the government of Bangladesh to conduct thorough, impartial, and transparent investigations into all allegations of enforced disappearances, hold those responsible accountable and deliver justice to the victims. Read more - Lire plus
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“If We Raise Our Voice They Arrest Us”: Sri Lanka’s Proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission
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Human Rights Watch 18/09/23 - Countless thousands of Sri Lankans await justice and accountability for serious human rights violations and war crimes committed during decades of civil unrest and armed conflict. They are the victims or family members of victims of arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, enforced disappearance, and unlawful killings by government security forces, the successionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) or other non-state armed groups. [...]
This report – based on over 80 interviews conducted in June 2023 – shows why the proposed National Unity and Reconciliation Commission is not a serious step to obtain truth or justice for past international crimes. The government should genuinely engage with victims and affected communities and learn from previous efforts. It should build on the evidence collected and recommendations made by past commissions including the 2017 Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms, which studied options for transitional justice. The government needs to end its ongoing abuses against victims, their families, and human rights defenders and activists seeking to enforce their rights. This means stopping and appropriately punishing members of the military, police and intelligence services who are carrying out surveillance and intimidation, repressing protests, abusing counterterrorism laws, and taking part in “land grabs” targeting minority communities. [...]
International law obligates governments prosecuting those responsible for serious international crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity, to combat impunity and ensure victims’ rights to truth, justice, and an effective remedy. Sri Lanka is a party to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and human rights treaties such as the Convention against Torture, which expressly provide for the prosecution of those responsible for serious crimes. Any amnesties granted would have no effect on these treaty obligations. Continuing impunity for grave and longstanding abuses in Sri Lanka fuels further human rights violations and undermines prospects for a durable peace in the country.
In other respects, the Wickremasinghe administration has not brought about significant improvements in the country’s human rights situation.
The authorities have continued to use the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to threaten, detain and prosecute Tamils predominantly, as well as activists and victims’ families. The law has also been used to arbitrarily detain Muslims, as well as some of those that organized recent protests related to the economic crisis. Sri Lankan governments have repeatedly pledged to repeal or significantly amend the legislation following decades of abuse, including a 2017 commitment to do so as part of its effort to gain tariff-free access for exports to the European Union. In March 2023, the government proposed a new counterterrorism law in response to pressure from the EU to fulfill the terms of its GSP+ trading privileges. But the new bill contains many of the same abusive provisions, as well as new powers, that would further enable the authorities to silence peaceful dissent. Read more - Lire plus
Sri Lanka: Lawyers Collective condemns Anti-Terror, Online Safety Bills
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Philippines: Global rights groups assail terror law misuse
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Phil Star 26/08/2023 - Is it now terrorism to support the people’s calls for cheaper rice? Are legitimate actions to defend human rights now to be prosecuted as crimes?
Following Marcos Jr.’s approval of the National Security Policy (NSP) 2023-2028 on Aug. 12, progressive people’s organizations and the human rights community are increasingly protesting the continued threats, including red-tagging, vilification and actual attacks on the country’s human rights defenders and activists. More alarming, they pointed out, has been the intensifying abuse of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020.
Last Tuesday (Aug. 22), eight international nongovernmental human rights organizations, supported by 34 human rights formations in the Asia-Pacific region, issued a joint solidarity statement with the country’s human rights defenders. They noted the “weaponization” of the ATA against human rights defenders, at least 13 of whom in Southern Tagalog currently face criminal complaints. The emerging trend “adds to the long list of harassment orchestrated by the Philippine Government to delegitimize [their] work,” the signatories said. “Such aggressive crackdown on defenders not only violates their fundamental functions but also hinders their crucial work in protecting and promoting human rights for all.”
The statement emphasized that the above-cited actions were a “stark contrast” with the Philippine government’s international commitment, being a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which it ratified in 1986 and, most recently, its commitment in the Universal Periodic Review 2022 (a UN procedure) related to effective protection of Philippine human rights defenders.
The eight signatory HR organizations are: Amnesty International; Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development; Asia-Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development; Front Line Defenders; International Federation for Human Rights; International Network for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; International Service for Human Rights and World Organization Against Torture. They urged the Philippine government to do the following: Cease all forms of intimidation and attacks against HRDs in the country; ensure an enabling environment that would allow all such defenders to continue their work without fear of reprisals and repeal all laws and regulations that have been weaponized to vilify and harass HRDs. Read more - Lire plus
Groups nationwide raise anti-terror law fear on 51st Martial Law commemoration
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Time to revoke death penalty for social media dissent, UN experts urge | |
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UN News 15/09/2023 - Saudi Arabia must immediately revoke the death sentence handed down to Mohammed Al Ghamdi for posting critical views online, as the crackdown on freedom of expression in the country continues to escalate, independent UN human rights experts said on Friday.
Mr. Al Ghamdi was arrested by the Saudi security services on 11 June 2022 and charged with criminal offences for opinions he expressed on social media platforms X and YouTube. The charges included “betrayal of his religion, country, and rulers;” “spreading false rumours with intent to disrupt public order and destabilise security;” and “supporting terrorist ideology and a terrorist group.”
On 10 July this year, Saudi Arabia’s Specialised Criminal Court found Mr. Al Ghamdi guilty and sentenced him to death. According to the court, Mr. Al Ghamdi was being severely punished for “heinous crimes” that were allegedly “amplified through a global media platform.” "The mere expression of critical views online cannot meet the threshold under international law for the imposition of the death penalty,” urged the human rights experts. “Under no circumstances do the alleged crimes constitute the ‘most serious’ crimes,” they added.
The Human Rights Council-appointed experts stressed that freedom of expression and opinion were critical to achieving a free and democratic society and sustainable development. “It is alarming that Saudi Arabia’s punishments for online expression include the death penalty or prison sentences of several decades under anti-terrorism laws. These punishments are completely inconsistent with international law and human rights standards,” the experts said. “The arrest, detention and sentencing to death of Muhammad Al Ghamdi sends a clear and chilling message to all those who wish to express themselves freely in Saudi Arabia.” Read more - Lire plus
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How Hong Kong Authorities Are Using National Security Law to Target Dissidents | |
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Jurist 20/09/2023 - Three years have passed since Beijing enacted the National Security Law of Hong Kong (NSL). And throughout this period, the city’s authorities have been using the law in parallel with established laws, such as one prohibiting “seditious intent,” to target dissidents. As of July 2023, 71 arrests had been made based on the sedition law, and 46 of them were subsequently charged. Last week, the law was used to prosecute a new victim, demonstrating how aggressively the city’s public prosecutor is applying this draconian law.
The Hong Kong Magistrate Court last week sentenced Zeng Yuxuan, a 23-year-old mainland Chinese law student to six-months in prison for planning to publicly display a banner depicting a sculpture that had commemorated the victims of the Tiananmen massacre. For context, the physical sculpture, the Pillar of Shame by Jens Galschiøt, was removed from the grounds of the University of Hong Kong amid much controversy in 2021.
In the hearing, Zeng pleaded guilty to attempting or making any preparation to carry out an act or acts with seditious intention. The prosecutor told the court that Zeng had received the Pillar of Shame banner from a source in the US. Messages retrieved from Zeng’s mobile phone indicated that she had planned to display the banner on June 4, the 24th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown. Zeng was first arrested on January 1, accused of having carried out a “seditious act” by displaying a sketch of a man who had assaulted police and committed suicide in 2021 in the same place where she intended to
show the banner. The prosecutor ultimately dropped this charge, which was brought before the court with Zeng’s banner case.
Before the enactment of the NSL, Hongkongers used to participate in the vigil to commemorate victims of the Tiananmen massacre in Causeway Bay. Students at the University of Hong Kong, where the Pillar was once situated, would also clean and paint the statute. Following the enactment of the law in June 2020, vigil organisers were charged and convicted under the NSL, and the police seized the Pillar of Shame after it was removed by the University management.
The Hong Kong authorities have been using the NSL and the sedition provision, a British colonial-era law, to reshape political and civic institutions and life in the city. Under Hong Kong’s Crimes Ordinance, seditious intention means “to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against a person of the government, against the administration of justice, or with the aim of raising discontent or disaffection amongst inhabitants of Hong Kong.”
The ambiguous nature of the law gives the Hong Kong authorities — specifically the National Security Department of the Police Force — an overarching power to arrest and charge any person who made speeches deemed “seditious” online and offline. The threshold was so low that retweeting posts expressing dissatisfaction towards the Chinese Communist Party and the Hong Kong Police Force, as well as praising the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests’ songs, slogans and flags, could trigger prosecutions. In another case, a person criticised the judge and judicial independence at the court and got convicted with seditious intention instead of contempt of court. While the judge declared not to intervene in the charges brought to the court, the authorities did not hesitate to make politically motivated charges to exert a chilling effect upon the public who dared to dissent.
It is worth noting that those speeches and actions criticising both Beijing and Hong Kong authorities involved in the aforementioned cases were not illegal before the NSL was in force. Since Beijing took over the sovereignty of Hong Kong in 1997, the city’s authorities never arrested anyone with seditious intentions until March 2020, months before the NSL was enacted. Since seditious intention has been brought back alive by the Hong Kong authorities, only individuals who had already made speeches or actions deemed to breach the law have been brought to the court. The recent conviction of Zeng, however, has brought the use of such vague and politically motivated charges to an unprecedented level – Zeng had only possessed a banner, discussed the plans to display it with Chinese dissidents through messaging apps and had never actually displayed it.
Zeng’s prosecution and conviction depict a worrying trend of the city’s NSL police arresting and charging individuals for increasingly trivial perceived infractions — from mere criticisms of the regime, to plans to display dissenting images in private spaces. Paired with the seditious intent law, the NSL has become a convenient tool for the Hong Kong authorities to crack down on free speech. Read more - Lire plus
Hong Kong 47: Two democrats who pleaded guilty under national security law to return to court in Oct
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Canada: Do not purchase armed drones | |
The ICLMG is a member of the No Armed Drones campaign | |
In the government's proposal seeking bids for its drone program it laid out disturbing scenarios for Canadian military drone use: One scenario described drones being used to surveil activists protesting a (theoretical) G20 Summit in Quebec, helping the security team intercept and identify the occupants of a vehicle, who are “anti-capitalist radicals” intending to “hang a banner concerning global warming.” Another scenario modeled after US drone strike programs features a drone bombing “Fighting Age Males” in the Middle East after spotting one of them “holding a small radio or cell phone." The initial cost estimate is $5 billion with billions more to operate the drones over their 25-year lifespan. | |
CSIS isn't above the law! | |
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In recent years, at least three court decisions revealed the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) engaged in potentially illegal activities and lied to the courts. This is utterly unacceptable, especially given that this is not the first time these serious problems have been raised. CSIS cannot be allowed to act as though they are above the law.
Send a message to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino demanding that he take immediate action to put an end to this abuse of power and hold those CSIS officers involved accountable, and for parliament to support Bill C-331, An Act to amend the Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act (duty of candour). Your message will also be sent to your MP and to Minister of Justice David Lametti.
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Canada must protect Hassan Diab! | |
Canada must repatriate all Canadians detained in NE Syria now! | |
On January 20, 2023, Federal Court Justice Henry Brown ruled that Canada must repatriate Canadians illegally and arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria. On February 6, 2023, the Canadian government filed an appeal and asked that the Brown ruling be set aside and placed on hold while the appeal plays out. This is unacceptable.
Every day the government fails to bring these Canadians home, it places their lives at risk from disease, malnutrition, violence, and ongoing military conflicts, including bombing by Turkey’s military. United Nations officials have even found that the conditions faced by Canadians in prison are akin to torture. Please click below to urge the federal government to repatriate all Canadians illegally & arbitrarily detained in northeast Syria without delay.
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20 years of fighting deportation to torture: Justice for Mohamed Harkat Now! | |
Canada must protect encryption! | |
Canada’s extradition system is broken. One leading legal expert calls it “the least fair law in Canada.” It has led to grave harms and rights violations, as we’ve seen in the case of Canadian citizen Dr Hassan Diab. It needs to be reformed now.
Click below to send a message to urge Prime Minister Trudeau, the Minister of Justice and your Member of Parliament to reform the extradition system before it makes more victims. And share on Facebook + Twitter + Instagram. Thank you!
Regardez la vidéo avec les sous-titres en français + Agir
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Protect our rights from facial recognition! | Facial recognition surveillance is invasive and inaccurate. This unregulated tech poses a threat to the fundamental rights of people across Canada. Federal intelligence agencies refuse to disclose whether they use facial recognition technology. The RCMP has admitted (after lying about it) to using facial recognition for 18 years without regulation, let alone a public debate regarding whether it should have been allowed in the first place. Send a message to Prime Minister Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Bill Blair calling for a ban now. | |
OTHER NEWS - AUTRES NOUVELLES | |
January to June 2023 - Janvier à juin 2023 | |
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Here is what we worked on so far this year thanks to the support of our members and donors:
- Bill C-20, Public Complaints and Review Commission Act
- Bill C-26, An Act respecting cyber security and amending the Telecommunications Act
- Bill C-27, Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022
- Bill C-41: International assistance and anti-terrorism laws
- Canadians detained in Northeastern Syria
- Justice for Dr Hassan Diab & reform of the Extradition Act
- Combatting Islamophobia
- Countering terrorist financing & prejudiced audits of Muslim charities
- National Security and Intelligence Review Agency
- CSIS accountability and duty of candour
- CSE, surveillance and cyberwarfare
- Facial Recognition Technology (FRT)
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“Online harms” proposal
- Canada’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR)
- Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Counter-terrorism
- UN Counterterrorism Executive Directorate Canada assessment
- UN Special Rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights global survey on counterterrorism and civic space
For more details on each item and to see all the media articles we were mentioned in or were interviewed for, click here.
What we have planned for the rest of 2023!
- Ensuring that the Canadian government’s proposals on “online harms” do not violate fundamental freedoms, or exacerbate the silencing of racialized and marginalized voices
- Protecting our privacy from government surveillance, including facial recognition, and from attempts to weaken encryption, along with advocating for good privacy law reform
- Addressing the lack of regulation on the use of AI in national security, including proposed exemptions for national security agencies
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Fighting for Justice for Mohamed Harkat, an end to security certificates, and addressing problems in security inadmissibility
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Ensuring Justice for Hassan Diab and reforming Canada’s extradition law
- The return of the rest of the Canadian citizens and the non-Canadian mothers of Canadian children indefinitely detained in Syrian camps
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The end to the CRA’s prejudiced audits of Muslim-led charities
- Greater accountability and transparency for the Canada Border Services Agency
- Greater transparency and accountability for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
- Advocating for the repeal of the Canadian No Fly List, and for putting a stop to the use of the US No Fly List by air carriers in Canada
- Pressuring lawmakers to protect our civil liberties from the negative impact of national security and the “war on terror”, as well as keeping you and our member organizations informed via the News Digest
- Publishing a collection of essays written by amazing partners on the work of the ICLMG for our 20th anniversary
- And much more!
Version française: Ce que nous avons fait jusqu'à présent en 2023
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Les opinions exprimées ne reflètent pas nécessairement les positions de la CSILC - The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the positions of ICLMG. | |
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THANK YOU
to our amazing supporters!
We would like to thank all our member organizations, and the hundreds of people who have supported us over the years, including on Patreon! As a reward, we are listing below our patrons who give $10 or more per month (and wanted to be listed) directly in the News Digest. Without all of you, our work wouldn't be possible!
James Deutsch
Bill Ewanick
Kevin Malseed
Brian Murphy
Colin Stuart
Bob Thomson
James Turk
John & Rosemary Williams
Jo Wood
The late Bob Stevenson
Nous tenons à remercier nos organisations membres ainsi que les centaines de personnes qui ont soutenu notre travail à travers les années, y compris sur Patreon! En récompense, nous nommons ci-dessus nos mécènes qui donnent 10$ ou plus par mois et voulaient être mentionné.es directement dans la Revue de l'actualité. Sans vous tous et toutes, notre travail ne serait pas possible!
Merci!
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