Centrum for rattvisa – Center for Justice: European Court Requested to Review Swedish ‘Big Brother’ Snooping Law.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden–(EMWNews)–Centrum för rättvisa

(Center for Justice), CFR, a Swedish public interest law organisation

based in Stockholm, has lodged a complaint with the European Court of

Human Rights (ECHR) against Sweden following the adoption by the Swedish

parliament of an act that endorses secret mass surveillance which

affects millions of people all over the world.

The issue at hand is both the currently ongoing, but totally

unregulated, strategic monitoring by Swedish authorities of wireless

electronic communications, and the recently adopted parliamentary act,

which would give the right to the authorities to also monitor wired

communication, both of which constitute a violation of the right to

privacy and private life (Article 8), and the right to an effective

remedy (Article 13), as protected by the European Convention on Human

Rights.

“There is a massive public interest in

resolving the issue of whether the FRA Act is compatible with the

demands of the European Convention. The Act basically means that

everyone, not only Swedish citizens, risks having their electronic

communication monitored by the Swedish state”,

says Clarence Crafoord, Chief legal counsel at CFR.

The application relates to intelligence work in the form of signals

intelligence conducted by the Swedish Defence Radio Establishment (FRA),

the Swedish authority which is responsible for the surveillance. This

refers specifically to strategic monitoring of the communication taking

place between individuals by e-mail, telephone, fax, text messages etc,

whenever the communication crosses the Swedish border. As the

communications network is global, communication taking place between

individuals in other states will often cross the Swedish border, and

will thus be subject to review by the Swedish state.

Illegal surveillance without legal basis

The wireless electronic communication, which is currently being

monitored, amounts to approximately two percent of all electronic

communication that crosses the Swedish border. This surveillance,

heavily criticised by various Swedish Government Official Reports, has

for many years been pursued completely unregulated and without any legal

basis, thus contravening the requirement for secret surveillance to be

in accordance with the law, as set out by the ECHR.

In addition to these two percent, the strategic monitoring permitted by

the recently adopted parliamentary act (FRA Act of June 18 2008) will

now also cover wired communication, which constitutes the remaining 98

percent of all electronic communication.

Massive surveillance measures – affecting

millions The former head of the FRA, Anders Wik, has publicly stated

that the surveillance will primarily not target communication between

Swedish citizens. The surveillance is therefore likely to be aimed at

not only communication between one individual in Sweden and one abroad,

but also communication between individuals in other states.

The FRA Act does not differentiate between information regarding

potential terrorist threats, confidential business matters or strictly

private communication – all that matters is

that the communication crosses the Swedish border. Essentially, this Act

endorses secret mass surveillance which affects millions of people all

over the world.

The ECHR strikes down near identical snooping act

The recent ECHR judgement in the case of Liberty and others v United

Kingdom (judgement of July 1 2008), has immediate relevance to the

assessment of the FRA Act. Like the British Act –

deemed incompatible with the European convention by the ECHR –

the FRA Act has a number of fundamental shortcomings. In the complaint

CFR highlights, inter alia, the following:

1. The scope of the FRA Act is not of sufficient clarity, as the

purposes for monitoring range from international terrorism to ecological

imbalances and interest rate and currency speculation. For an

individual, it is impossible to foresee its consequences.

2. As the global communication system does not know any borders, it is

decided by chance whether your communication is reviewed by the state or

not – this is arbitrary and contrary to

requirements set out by the ECHR.

3. The FRA Act does not contain sufficiently clear indications on by

what process the information gathered is monitored, used, shared and

stored, nor when or how the information can or should be erased.

4. The FRA Act is ineffective – those who want

to avoid being monitored can achieve this by way of regular encryption.

5. Individuals who suspect that they have been subject to surveillance

lack the opportunity to have this confirmed and therefore lack an

effective remedy.

Centrum för rättvisa

– Center for justice CFR is a non-profit

organisation whose purpose is to enforce the rights and freedoms

protected in the European Convention on Human Rights, the Swedish

constitution and statutes. The mission of CFR is primarily to help

people who have a legitimate case that involves individual rights and

freedoms, and have, among others, taken on cases concerning equal

treatment, freedom of association, right of ownership and legal

security. CFR has been successful in cases against the Swedish

Government in both the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court and Supreme

Court, and have several cases pending at the ECHR. CFR does not charge

its clients, and is independent of political parties, associations and

companies

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