(HRW/IFEX) — Human Rights Watch on 18 September urged an international conference on technology, now meeting in Vienna, not to expand controls on encryption technologies. The organization said that cryptographic products are critical to the ability of human rights defenders around the world to transmit sensitive information without detection by repressive governments. The conference is […]
(HRW/IFEX) — Human Rights Watch on 18 September urged an international
conference on technology, now meeting in Vienna, not to expand controls on
encryption technologies. The organization said that cryptographic products
are critical to the ability of human rights defenders around the world to
transmit sensitive information without detection by repressive governments.
The conference is reviewing the 1996 Wassenaar Arrangement, an international
agreement signed by 30 countries to govern the proliferation of military
technology.
Dissidents and human rights organizations under repressive regimes
frequently use encryption technologies to share information. Encryption has
the power to authenticate the identity of these authors to their partners
abroad, while protecting their identity from despots at home.
The United States has adopted relatively restrictive encryption policies,
which prohibit the global distribution of software used to encrypt text. In
particular, Washington has outlawed the export of the most popular software
among human rights activists, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), although the
Wassenaar Arrangement explicitly exempts crypto-software, like PGP, that is
widely available in the public domain.
Human Rights Watch warned the other participants in the Vienna conference
not to incorporate such restrictive policies into the Wassenaar Arrangement,
or to further limit the global distribution, development, or use of strong
encryption hardware or software.
“Encryption is more than a shield for human rights activists,” said Jagdish
Parikh, associate online researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Coded language
is still language, and it must be protected as a basic human right to free
expression.” Parikh noted that the right to free expression is set forth in
Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to
which most members of Wassenaar Arrangement are party.
Human Rights Watch said that encryption is also an important bulwark against
violations of privacy in an age where computerization and data banks enable
the collection of huge amounts of personal information about individuals.
Moreover, international law requires states not only to refrain from
arbitrary interference with privacy, but to affirmatively protect its
citizens from such attacks.
“The sorts of countries most eager to ban the use of encryption, such as
China and Iran, are not known for respecting freedom of speech,” said
Parikh. “Using encryption should not subject an individual to criminal
sanction, any more than using Pig Latin or Swahili does.”
Many human rights activists around the world would be spared retaliation and
abuse if crypto-software were more widely available, Parikh said.
