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The Internet and Human Rights: An Overview January 5, 2000 -
This memo summarizes key free expression and privacy issues under international law.
International Cyber-Crime InitiativesThe Council of Europe, the G-8, and othwr international bodies are drafting cybercrime policies that affect civil liberties online.
CDT's report on Free Expression and the Internet [.pdf] September, 1998
Free Expression overview October 6, 1998
CDT's report on Internet access in Central and Eastern Europe with country reports and analysis of universal service principles. March 2000.
CDT is a participant in the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, a coalition of organizations from around the world working to promote and protect freedom of expression, privacy, and equal access on the Internet.
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Several international initiatives on cybercrime raise concerns
for Internet freedom. One is the Council of Europe
(COE) treaty on computer crime. Another major issue concerns legal mandates on ISPs to retain data about their customers' Internet usage. CDT here
collects various materials on these and other initiatives.
The Council of Europe has adopted a "Convention on Cybercrime,"
the first international treaty to address criminal law and procedural
aspects of various types of criminal behavior directed against
computer systems, networks or data.
The Convention was approved by the COE in November 2001. Thereupon
it was opened for signature by member states of the COE and other
countries invited by the COE to adopt it. As a treaty, the convention
has no binding legal force in any country until it is ratified by the national
government. The treaty entered into force on January 7, 2004, after five states
ratified it. The US, as a participant in the drafting of the treaty,
was invited to ratify the treaty and did so in August 2006.
The Convention requires countries that ratify it to adopt similar
criminal laws on hacking, infringements of copyright,
computer-related fraud, and child pornography. It also contains
provisions on investigative powers and
procedures, such as the search of computer networks and interception
of communications, and requires cross-border law enforcement
cooperation in searches and seizures and extradition. It has been
supplemented by an
additional protocol making any publication of racist and xenophobic
propaganda via computer
networks a criminal offence.
| Analyses of COE Convention |
| Industry and Privacy Comments on Drafts of the COE Treaty |
- CDT Comments on Draft #25, February
6, 2001
- International Treaty on Cybercrime Poses Burden on
High-Tech Companies, Mike Godwin, April 5, 2001
- Opinion of the EC Data Protection Working Party (pdf),
March 22, 2001
- Net Coalition Comments,
January 2001
- GILC letter signed by 21 privacy groups
worldwide, December 12, 2000
- Comments of American for Computer
Privacy, December 7, 2000
- Comments from Americans for Computer
Privacy, November 15, 2000
- Comments from the Information
Technology Association of Canada, October 23, 2000
- Comments of CDT and other
non-governmental organizations, October 18, 2000
- Comments of the Internet Alliance
(on draft #19), October 2000
- Statement of Concern from Technology
Professionals
One of the most contentious issues is whether governments should
require communications service providers to retain traffic data or
transactional records on all communications.
| COE Protocol on Terrorist Messages |
| COE Protocol on Racist Speech |
- Eleven member States of the Council of Europe signed the Racism Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime,
on January 28, 2003. The Protocol was adopted by the Committee of
Ministers of the Council of Europe on 7 November 2002.
- In November 2002, the Council of Europe approved the protocol to the Cybercrime Treaty, requiring states
to criminalize the dissemination of racist and xenophobic
material through
computer systems, as well as racist and xenophobic-motivated threat
and insult.
- COE Draft Protocol on Racist and
Zenophobic Speech: Prelimiary draft [pdf] December 18, 2001
accompanying report of the Committee of Experts (dated January 7,
2002)
- Letter to Sec. Powell and
Attorney-General Ashcroft from US industry and public Interest
Groups, Feb. 7, 2002
- Letter Calling for Disclosure of Draft Protocol,
Feb. 6, 2002
- Specific Terms of
Reference, [pdf] December 13, 2001
- Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly
recommendation on racism and xenophobia in cyberspace
| European Commission Materials |
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