Tag Archive for: rights

India: Government’s pursuit of new surveillance technology heightens human rights concerns 

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Responding to a report by the Financial Times that India is searching for alternative spyware technology to replace NSO Group’s Pegasus surveillance software, Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, Head of the Security Lab at Amnesty International, said:  

“It is chilling that instead of respecting human rights and ensuring accountability for those targeted by Pegasus, that the Indian government is instead looking for alternative spyware to further its surveillance capabilities. 

The spyware industry continues to spiral out of control globally with dozens of companies offering similar products to Pegasus.

Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, Head of the Security Lab at Amnesty International

“It is shameful that although spyware technology has been used to commit grave human rights violations, crush dissent, and stifle freedom of assembly and expression, governments across the world continue to recklessly advance these methods to unlawfully target dissidents and critics.”  

New research from Amnesty International’s Security Lab this week has uncovered evidence of a spyware hacking campaign targeting Google’s Android operating system and impacting billions of users worldwide.  

“The spyware industry continues to spiral out of control globally with dozens of companies offering similar products to Pegasus. We urgently need a global moratorium on the sale, transfer, and use of spyware until robust human rights regulatory safeguards are in place.”  

Background:  

On March 30, 11 governments issued a joint statement committing to joint action to counter the proliferation and misuse of commercial spyware. 

On March 27, United States President Joe Biden signed an executive order restricting the government’s use of commercial spyware technology that has been used to intimidate civil society around the globe. 

In 2021, following revelations by Amnesty International in the Pegasus Project about the spyware produced by the Israeli company NSO, the Supreme Court of India set up a technical committee to investigate abuses involving the software. In 2022, the committee concluded their investigation, but the court has not made the findings of the report public….

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VPN, Digital Rights, & Online Security Research

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Simon Migliano leads our research and investigations into VPN safety and digital privacy.

His work examining dangerous free VPNs, identity theft, and internet censorship have been featured in over 1,000 publications worldwide including the BBC, CNet, Wired, and The Financial Times.

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Joint Statement on Protecting Human Rights Defenders Online

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The text of the following statement is released by the Governments of the United States of America and the European Union in advance of the third U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council Ministerial in Washington, D.C. on December 5, 2022.

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The U.S.-EU partnership is a cornerstone of our shared strength, prosperity, and commitment to advancing freedom, democracy, and respect for human rights around the world.  In the framework of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council, we address the misuse of technology threatening security and human rights and have committed to strengthen our cooperation on protecting human rights defenders online; promoting the open, free, global, interoperable, secure, and reliable Internet as stated in the Declaration for the Future of the Internet; combatting online harassment and abuse; eliminating arbitrary and unlawful surveillance; combatting government-imposed Internet shutdowns; and countering disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference.

Digital technologies are a vital resource for human rights defenders and civic actors around the world, including in the context of documenting human rights violations and abuses, and international humanitarian law violations.  However, these technologies can also be misused to target human rights defenders and undermine civic space.  The United States and the European Union (EU) are deeply concerned by the rapid growth of online threats against human rights defenders and the ongoing contraction of civic space around the world.  Human rights defenders continue to face threats and attacks, including arbitrary or unlawful online surveillance, censorship, harassment, smear campaigns, disinformation to include gendered disinformation, targeted Internet shutdowns, and doxing.  Online attacks often pave the way for physical human rights violations and abuses, including beatings, killings, enforced disappearances, and arbitrary detention.

Women human rights defenders are disproportionately impacted by threats and attacks, which are more often gendered and sexualized than threats against their male counterparts and increasingly take place online.  Many women human rights…

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India: Government should promptly adopt and act on the recommendations made at UN Rights Review

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Member States Seek Protection of Minority Rights, Free Speech, Peaceful Assembly

The Indian government should promptly adopt and act on the recommendations that United Nations member states made at the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review process on November 10, 2022, six international human rights groups said today. The recommendations cover a range of key concerns including the protection of minority communities and vulnerable groups, tackling gender-based violence, upholding civil society freedoms, protecting human rights defenders, and ending torture in custody.

The groups are the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), CSW, International Dalit Solidarity Network, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch.

All UN member states participate in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, which examines their human rights record and proposes action to improve the human rights situations in their countries. In its report submitted to the UN ahead of its review, the Indian government claimed, “it is firmly committed to the promotion and protection of human rights.” However, in the past UPR cycles, India has ignored important recommendations, including to address increasing violence against religious minorities, ensure accountability of its security forces, and protect freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

During the periodic review, India’s fourth, 130 member states made 339 recommendations highlighting some of the most urgent human rights concerns in the country.

Since its last review in 2017, India has undergone a serious regression in human rights under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The government has escalated its crackdown on independent and democratic institutions, and is using draconian counterterrorism and national security laws to prosecute and harass human rights activists, journalists, students, government critics, and peaceful protesters. Attacks, discrimination, and incitement against religious minorities are increasing. The traditionally marginalized Dalit and Adivasi communities have been denied justice and…

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