Privacy International

A judicial review has been filed in response to the UK customs and tax department’s refusal to reveal information about the potentially unlawful export of surveillance technology and its use against political dissidents.

Privacy International submitted stakeholder reports to the UN Human Rights Council about the human rights records of China, Senegal and Mexico; the reports will inform the questions asked by the HRC when these countries are reviewed as part of the UPR process.

Over 30 IFEX members express concern at a set of proposals put forth by the government of Ecuador and due to be discussed on 8 March in Ecuador that seek to reform the OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression.

Human rights organisations have filed formal complaints with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development arguing that surveillance products and services provided by the firms Gamma International and Trovicor have facilitated multiple human rights abuses in Bahrain.

Statistics recently released by Google and Twitter about government requests are a sobering reminder that it is not only the corporations to which we consensually provide this information which are able to access it, notes Privacy International.

Following Privacy International’s inquiry into exports of Gamma International surveillance technology, the Secretary of State has advised the company that their system requires a licence to export to all destinations outside the EU.

The Rwandan government tightened its grip on citizens last week when the parliament’s lower house adopted legislation that sanctions the widespread monitoring of email and telephone communications.

Privacy International is pressuring the government to ban exports of British surveillance technologies to regimes that routinely engage in internal repression and serious human rights abuses.