10 March 2015 Barbora Bukovska, ARTICLE 19 Freedom of Expression: Jurisprudential trends Focus on surveillance

Background Various forms of surveillance addressed in case law (e.g. electronic communication, surveillance of public spaces, data retention); Infringement of variety of human rights, in particular The right to freedom of expression; The right to privacy (private life); The right to effective remedy; Lack of large scale judicial challenges – no class action, cases brought For the review of the constitutionality/lawfulness of the legislation; or By human rights activists; or Within specific issue in criminal cases.

Developments at regional courts European Court of Human Rights (Council of Europe) Riina vs Italy (App. No /09, 11 March 2014) – video surveillance; Dragojevic vs Croatia (App. No /11, 15 January 2015) - lawfulness of surveillance; Pending cases Zakharov vs Russia (App. No /06, hearing in 2014); Big Brother Watch & Others vs the UK(App. no /13, communicated to the UK in 2014); European Court of Justice (the EU) Digital Rights Ireland vs Ireland (Joint Cases C-293/12 & C-594/12, 8 April 2014) – Data Retention Direction unlawful.

Developments in national courts Austria – The Constitutional Court - Case 47/2012 of 27 June on statutory provisions on data retention; South Korea: The South Korean National Human Rights Commission - decision of 8April on the lack of prior judicial authorization for access to the collected data; The United Kingdom: The Investigatory Powers Tribunal – decision from 6 February 2015 in the case of Liberty vs GCHQ – on regulations covering access by the UK intelligence agency to s and phone records intercepted by the NSA

Cases to watch Pakistan: Bytes for All vs the Federation of Pakistan and others – against the use of FinFisher Command and Control Server on the network of Pakistan Telecommunications Company Ltd and suspected digital surveillance targeting human rights defenders, NGOs and population at large; Ethiopia: Kidane vs Ethiopia, launched in February 2014, in Federal Court in Washington, DC – challenging the Ethiopian government use of secret spyware (FinSpy); Venezuela: Omar Silva vs Public Prosecutor of San Cristobal – launched in October 2014, challenge by human rights attorney for being target by the intelligence agencies for his human rights work.