LIBRe Foundation’s partners working on the EU-supported MAPPING project are collaborating with the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur for Privacy (SRP) to organise a structured public consultation about new legal measures at international law intended to improve the protection of privacy in this age of ubiquitous surveillance.
The eventual possible use at UN level of a draft legal instrument on surveillance was mentioned by Professor Joe Cannataci in his capacity as UN Special Rapporteur for Privacy in his annual report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 07 March 2017.
This report has received considerable international attention and, in response to the overwhelmingly positive reception to the idea of such a legal instrument, the SRP has carried out further extensive, confidential informal consultations world-wide about the thrust of the text and especially his mention of an International panel of judges and an International Data Access Warrant. These and other measures contemplated within the draft text developed in the MAPPING Project have been discussed and developed further in order to prepare a text which is mature enough to be launched for a wider public consultation.
A working group composed of experts from civil society, the MAPPING Project and major internet corporations will meet again in Paris, France on 13-14 September 2017 in order to continue working on the text. Experts on privacy and surveillance who are interested and able to contribute to this meeting should contact Aukje Snijders on a.m.snijders@step-rug.nl.
The next stage of the consultations is a Public consultation stage in which the draft text as amended to end November 2017 is expected to be made available online and further discussed at the following events:
- A web-cast Round Table discussion during the Internet Governance Forum 2017 held in Geneva 19-22 December co-organised by the UN SRP and the MAPPING Project (TBC - currently short-listed for inclusion in the IGF2017 programme);
- MAPPING SURVEILLANCE Stakeholder Consultation session, scheduled for 17-19 January 2018;
- MAPPING Final General Assembly to be held in Malta on 12-14 February 2018.
Follow MAPPING Project website for updates on the progress of the text development and the planned events: https://mappingtheinternet.eu/