Friday 25 September 2015
The ’Snowden Treaty’ - A new International Treaty on the Right to Privacy, Protection Against Improper Surveillance and Protection of Whistleblowers.
In 2013 Edward Snowden, a U.S. whistleblower, made data available to journalists showing the previously unimaginable scale of the U.S. and other governments’ mass and untargeted surveillance of their citizens.
This breach of millions of people’s privacy is in direct contravention of international human right law. In particular, the right to privacy is enshrined in Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 17 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
Protecting the right to privacy is vital not just in itself but because it is an essential requirement for the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression, the most fundamental pillars of democracy.
Despite doing us a tremendous public service by bringing these abuses to light, Edward Snowden was forced to flee certain incarceration in the U.S.
These revelations, and the treatment meted out to Snowden, have revealed the need for greater rights protections for citizens globally. We are campaigning for governments to sign up to the Snowden Treaty, a proposed treaty that would curtail mass surveillance and protect the rights of whistleblowers.
Voices such as Noam Chomsky, Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Oliver Stone and Joseph Gordon Levitt have already lent their support to the campaign.
Use the below information to follow the social media accounts, amplify the photos, articles and hashtag content. Share the information across all your networks. Tweet your thoughts on the treaty, on mass surveillance, the need for and fundamental right to privacy and other messages of support to the hashtags.
Take action - Official website snowdentreaty.org