A coalition of non-governmental organizations
on February 28 sent a letter to the Council of Europe asking for the
release of information on a second addition or protocol to the treaty
(the Hate Crimes Protocol being the first). Although this protocol reportedly covers "terrorist
messages and the decoding thereof," the CoE has not released any
information on what exactly that might mean.
February 28, 2002
Dear Council of Europe Secretary-General Walter
Schwimmer:
We are non-governmental organizations from Council of Europe
member and observer nations who share a common desire to protect
human rights on the global Internet. Many of the undersigned
organizations had previously sent you three letters as members of
Global Internet Liberty Campaign (dated Oct. 18, Dec. 12, 2000, and
Feb. 6, 2002) that raised a number of concerns regarding the Council
of Europe activities on computer-related crime and international
co-operation.
We understand that a second draft protocol is under discussion
within theCouncil of Europe 'to cover also terrorist messages and
the decodingthereof' [1]. It appears to be a derivative effort
from the Racist andXenophobic activities [2]; and could serve as a
basis for the revision of the Convention on Suppressing Terrorist
activity [3].
We are writing to ask for the public release of this discussion
draft as soon as it is completed, as well as preliminary meeting
documents in order to provide us with the opportunity to participate
in your discussions. Given the potentially serious ramifications of
the proposed second protocol and related work of the CoE, we believe
its draft text must be disclosed to allow vigorous and wide-ranging
debate over its merits.
The signatories are of the unanimous view that the development of
any protocol or treaty should conform with principles of
transparency and democratic decision-making. Over the past 18
months, GILC and its member organizations have appealed to you
personally and the CoE committees on many occasions to open up the
development processes, to allow for broader participation, while we
repeatedly offered our time and experience for consultation.
As the CoE expands even further the powers of law enforcement
authorities and definitions of offences, it manages to do so under
increasingly closed and secretive conditions. We continue to be
disappointed by the CoE's practice of creating important
international conventions and treaties under the protection of
obscurity. This opaque and non-democratic process is
particularly surprising in contrast with the CoE's previous
important contributions to liberty and human rights.
For these reasons, we urge you to release information and draft
documents regarding this second protocol to the general public if it
is finished, or to release the document as soon as it is
completed.
Sincerely,
American Civil Liberties
Union (US)
Article 19-The Global
Campaign for Free Expression
Association for Progressive
Communications
Associazione per la Liberta
nella Comunicazione Elettronica Interattiva (IT)
Bits of Freedom (NL)
Bulgarian Institute for
Legal Development (BG)
Center for Democracy and
Technology (US)
Chaos Computer Club
(DE)
Cyber-Rights &
Cyber-Liberties (UK)
Derechos Human
Rights (US)
Digital Freedom Network
(US)
Digital Rights
(DK)
Electronic Frontiers
Australia (AU)
Electronic Frontier
Foundation (US)
Electronic Privacy
Information Center (US)
Equipo
Nizkor (ES)
Feminists
Against Censorship (UK)
Förderverein
Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
Foundation for Information
Policy Research (UK)
Human Rights Network
(RU)
Human Rights Watch
Imaginons un Réseau
Internet Solidaire (FR)
Liberty (UK)
The Link Centre, Wits
University, Johannesburg (ZA)
Networkers
against Surveillance Taskforce (JP)
Online Policy
Group (US)
Privacy
International (UK)
Privacy Ukraine
(UA)
Quintessenz
(AT)
Swiss Internet User
Group (CH)
Verein für Internet
Benutzer (AT)
XS4ALL (NL)
Footnotes
1. Committee of Ministers, 776th meeting - 6 December 2001,
Item 1.6. <http://cm.coe.int/stat/E/Decisions/2001/776/d01_6.htm>
2. Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE, Recommendation 1534
(2001)1 - Democracies facing terrorism.<http://www.coe.int/T/E/Legal_affairs/Legal_co-operation/Fight_against_terrorism/e_Rec1534(01).asp#TopOfPage>
3. Multidisciplinary Group on International Action Against
Terrorism (GMT), Meeting Report of 1st meeting, Strasbourg, 12-14
December 2001.<http://www.coe.int/T/E/Legal_affairs/Legal_co-operation/Fight_against_terrorism/Texts_&_documents/GMT%20(2001)%207%20E%20-%20meeting%20report.asp#TopOfPage>