Ben Emmerson, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Counterterrorism
announced that he and a team will launch an investigation into the surveillance
activities and laws of the National Security Agency of the United States and
the UK’s GCHQ. According to Emmerson, the UN has many questions it needs
answered and these were “too important to ignore”.
According to Emmerson, the United Nations wants to know if Edward Snowden, who revealed everything regarding the operations of the NSA and the
GCHQ, is deserving of the legal protection given to whistleblowers or his efforts
only weakened the US/ UK counterterrorism defense systems. Another question
will be if there was parliamentary oversight regarding surveillance. The investigation
will also include a series of recommendations to the UN General Assembly in
2014.
Edward Snowden’s revelation of the US and UK surveillance
operations had left the world debating and had become one of the biggest
controversies in modern times. The American Civil Liberties Union had called on
the US administration to pipe down the surveillance activities of the country’s
intelligence-gathering bodies.
Meanwhile, eight technology companies have sent an open
letter to the US president Barack Obama regarding the need for sweeping reforms
in surveillance laws as it will affect the trust developed by people towards
new technology.
