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Content type: News & Analysis
17th August 2020
In the last few weeks, the UK government has announced various new measures to ensure that crossings across the Channel were “inviable” including by appointing a new role of “clandestine Channel threat commander" and further plans to deploy the navy to stop migrants from crossing to the UK from France across the Channel. Premature plans it seems, as not only would such measures be contrary to the UK’s international obligations to allow individuals to seek asylum in the UK, but also since such…
Content type: News & Analysis
22nd July 2020
The UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Professor Fionnuala Ní Aoláin together with Dr. Krisztina Huszti-Orbán, released today a key report on the “Use of Biometric Data to Identify Terrorists: Best Practice or Risky Business?”.
The report explores the human rights risks involved in the deployment of biometrics emphasising that
in the absence of robust rights protections which are institutionally embedded…
Content type: News & Analysis
15th June 2020
For the past few weeks, people across the world, starting in the US, have taken to the streets to protest the murder of George Floyd, a victim of police brutality. The protests, which are organised by and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement have also become a platform to protest against state sponsored violence and systematic racism against black people.
The majority of articles and media focus have so far focused on what happens during the protest, namely an increasingly militarised…
Content type: News & Analysis
11th June 2020
Yesterday, Amazon announced that they will be putting a one-year suspension on sales of its facial recognition software Rekognition to law enforcement. While Amazon’s move should be welcomed as a step towards sanctioning company opportunism at the expense of our fundamental freedoms, there is still a lot to be done.
The announcement speaks of just a one-year ban. What is Amazon exactly expecting to change within that one year? Is one year enough to make the technology to not discriminate…
Content type: News & Analysis
3rd June 2020
Humanitarian organisations are defined by their commitment to core, apolitical principles, including: humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence and to “do no harm”.
And yet the ways data and technology are being used in the world today are often far from being apolitical, humane, impartial, neutral and independent, and in many instances many actors are using technology to exploit people, failing to protect and empower many individuals and communities - in particular those most in need…
Content type: News & Analysis
6th April 2020
Lockdowns and quarantines are an extraordinary measure that help in slowing down the global COVID-19 pandemic, and protecting the population.
However, they come at an even higher cost to some individuals, such as victims of domestic violence, persons in a vulnerable situation, and human rights defenders, who face specific threats that are exacerbated by measures taken by governments to address the global pandemic.
In that context, states should adopt special measures to keep those people…
Content type: News & Analysis
15th January 2020
Today Advocate General (AG) Campos Sánchez-Bordona of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), issued his opinions (C-623/17, C-511/18 and C-512/18 and C-520/18) on how he believes the Court should rule on vital questions relating to the conditions under which security and intelligence agencies in the UK, France and Belgium could have access to communications data retained by telecommunications providers.
The AG addressed two major questions:
(1) When states seek to impose…