1pm EST, 24 September 2015, NYC
Glenn Greenwald, Edward Snowden, Laura Poitras, and Greenwald’s partner David Miranda have together drafted a ‘Snowden Treaty,’ “a proposed treaty that would curtail mass surveillance and protect the rights of whistleblowers.”
At SnowdenTreaty.org, the drafters explain that the worldwide mass surveillance that Snowden exposed have made clear the need for international protections:
This breach of millions of people’s privacy is in direct contravention of international human right law. In particular, the right to privacy is enshrined it Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Article 17 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
Protecting the right to privacy is vital not just in itself but because it is essential requirement for exercise of freedom of opinion and expression, the most fundamental pillars of democracy.
They further lay out three demands:
- We demand for privacy on the internet.
- We demand that the government grant us the right to privacy in our homes.
- We demand that the government protect our personal privacy online.
The treaty will be announced at a press conference on 24 September 2015, at ThoughtWorks Office, 99 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, at 1pm EST. Supporters are tweeting about the proposal with #SnowdenTreaty and #PrivacyMatters. Noam Chomsky, Oliver Stone, and John Cusack have already signed on in support.
Courage will tweet the day’s events and continue to report on the treaty’s developments.
Update
Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and David Miranda have discussed the Treaty in an appearance on Democracy Now. Video follows below and a full transcript is also available.