Wednesday 25 February 2015

UK Investigatory Powers Tribunal Declares Activities Regarding Prism/Upstream Intelligence Programs Legal

Investigatory Powers Tribunal:  [2014] UKIPTrib 13_77-H and [2015] UKIPTrib 13_77-H


The Investigatory Powers Tribunal of the UK is a court which investigates and determines complaints of unlawful use of covert techniques by public authorities infringing individuals' right to privacy and claims against intelligence or law enforcement agency conduct which breaches a wider range of human rights.

The Tribunal has handed down judgement in relation to the regime governing the soliciting, receiving, storing and transmitting by UK authorities of private communications in a case brought by human rights groups like Liberty, Privacy International and Amnesty International against the intelligence agencies in respect of alleged interception activity involving UK and US access to communications, the NSA "Prism" and "Upstream" programmes, as mainly revealed by the former member of the US intelligence services, Edward Snowden. 

The Court held that those alleged interception activities are compliant with Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights from the time of the trial but not before it. It argued that in principle the activities have been compliant with the legal requirements with the one exception of the need to provide a sufficiently accessible indication to the public of the legal framework and any safeguards. The disclosures made by the authorities in this public trial fulfilled that obligation to the satisfaction of the court. 


No comments:

Post a Comment