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U.N. anti-spying resolution weakened in bid to gain U.S., British support

26 November 2013 01:05 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A draft U.N. resolution that some diplomats said suggested spying in foreign countries could be a human rights violation has been weakened to appease the United States, Britain and others ahead of a vote by a U.N. committee next week.

Germany and Brazil drafted the resolution calling for an end to excessive electronic surveillance. It does not name specific countries but comes after former U.S. contractor Edward Snowden released details of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency.

The U.N. General Assembly's Third Committee, which deals with human rights issues, is to vote on the draft next week, and it is then expected to be put to a vote by the 193-nation General Assembly in December.

The initial draft would have had the assembly declare it is "deeply concerned at human rights violations and abuses that may result from the conduct of any surveillance of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance of communications."

But the language has been changed to "deeply concerned at the negative impact that surveillance and/or interception of communications, including extraterritorial surveillance and/or interception of communications, as well as the collection of personal data, in particular when carried out on a mass scale, may have on the exercise and enjoyment of human rights."

A senior U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the new language as a compromise that "sort of breaks the link between extraterritorial surveillance and human rights violations."

The final version of the draft was presented to the Third Committee late on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if the United States, Britain and others would support it.

General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, unlike resolutions of the 15-nation Security Council. But assembly resolutions that enjoy broad international support can carry significant moral and political weight.

Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty, called on the General Assembly to approve the draft resolution.

"We are deeply concerned that the countries representing the 'Five Eyes' surveillance alliance - the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom - have sought to weaken the resolution at the risk of undercutting their own longstanding public commitment to privacy and free expression," the groups said in a letter to U.N. states.