FC: Civ-libs ask Council of Europe about secret "Second Protocol"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech message:

"Council of Europe drafts secret 'Second Protocol'"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-03159.html

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From: BSteinhardt () aclu org
To: "Declan McCullagh \(E-mail\)" <declan () well com>
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 12:23:19 -0500

Declan,

Thirty-three cyberliberties and human rights groups from around the world
sent a letter today to the Council of Europe about a second, secret protocol
to the international Cybercrime treaty that is reportedly being considered.
(Despite the name Council of "Europe," the US has signed the main Convention
on Cybercrime.)

This protocol as you reported apparently has something to do with "terrorist
messages and the decoding thereof," and very little information has been
forthcoming from the CoE about this mysterious protocol.

Best,
Barry Steinhardt


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 7:23 PM
To: Office of COE SG Walter Schwimmer (E-mail)

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 the
Council of Europe 'to cover also terrorist messages and the decoding
thereof' [1].  It appears to be a derivative effort from the Racist and
Xenophobic 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 (DE)

Foundation for Information Policy Research (UK)

Human Rights Network (RU)

Human Rights Watch

Imaginons un Réseau Internet Solidaire (FR)

Internet Society of Bulgaria (BG)

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)

VIBE!AT - Verein für Internet-Benutzer Österreichs (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_terro
rism/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_terro
rism/Texts_&_documents/GMT%20(2001)%207%20E%20-%20meeting%20report.asp#TopOf
Page>




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