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By Alex Hern

Human rights committee launches inquiry into right to privacy and digital revolution

Widespread data collection practices lead to self-censorship and discrimination even though most users are not fully aware of how much their privacy is being infringed, a parliamentary committee has been warned.

On Wednesday, the human rights committee, beginning its inquiry into the right to privacy and the digital revolution, published evidence from privacy and data protection organisations including the Information Commissioner’s Office, Liberty and Privacy International.

Related: It’s not enough to break up Big Tech. We need to imagine a better alternative | Evgeny Morozov

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By plummerc

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Original content available at: Human Rights First

By Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington and Jon Swaine in New York

Novalpina Capital to establish new rules at NSO Group following multiple allegations that technology was used to spy on dissidents and the media

A controversial Israeli cyber weapons company has agreed to establish new internal rules on ways it will protect human rights activists and journalists following multiple allegations that its technology was used to spy on dissidents and the media.

Its majority owner, Novalpina Capital, a UK private equity firm, has promised a “significant enhancement of respect for human rights” at NSO Group, whose Pegasus software was recently alleged to have infected phones through a glitch in the WhatsApp messaging …read more

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By Editorial

A 21st-century parliament should not force any woman to choose between being a mother and an MP

Almost a third of parliamentarians in the House of Commons are women, an all-time high. This success is beginning to highlight the archaic working practices that prevent parliament from being representative of the nation it serves. In a brave and important article for these pages, the Labour MP Stella Creasy outlined her fight to get paid maternity cover for her work as a parliamentarian outside of the Commons. Ms Creasy has suffered repeated miscarriages. She now is pregnant again and …read more

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By Editorial

The former president played his part in destroying the hopes of the revolution. But his treatment speaks volumes about the regime which ousted him

Real-life events can bear a remarkable symbolic power. The advent of Egypt’s first and only democratically elected president in 2012 was one of them. His collapse, in a courtroom “cage” on Monday, after years of inadequate medical care, is another. Egyptians who would otherwise shed no tears for Mohamed Morsi can still regret the nature of his passing and what it says about their stolen revolution. He helped to destroy their hopes. The …read more

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By Antoine Buyse

Often in the face of of brutal crackdowns, street protesters are finding new ways to challenge repressive regimes

• Antoine Buyse is a professor of human rights and director of the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights

The massive demonstrations of recent weeks in Hong Kong and Sudan may seem to be totally disparate events. But they have more in common than meets the eye. The attempts by the authorities to disperse them with threats of violence or with peaceful promises is part of a wider global crackdown on people taking to the streets. But the creativity of protesters in finding ever …read more

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By plummerc

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Original content available at: Human Rights First

By Letters

Police must stop categorising protest activities in this way, say 152 campaigners, lawyers, academics, journalists and politicians

One of the greatest threats to free speech in Britain is the routine labelling, by the police, of non-violent protests and campaigns as “domestic extremism”. This term has no clear legal definition but is used to justify intensive surveillance and the retention of information on people who in many cases have never been arrested.

Designating a campaign as extremist means everyone associated with it may also find themselves labelled in this way, even if they do nothing unlawful. From anti-fracking and anti-racist campaigners to peace …read more

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By Owen Bowcott Legal affairs correspondent

Rights group argues powers of MI5 and GCHQ to obtain and store data breach human rights

“Bulk hacking” powers exploited by the intelligence services to access electronic devices represent an illegal intrusion into the private lives of millions of people, the high court has been told.

In its latest challenge to the 2016 Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), the civil rights organisation Liberty has argued that government surveillance practices breach human rights law.

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By Owen Bowcott

Victims include imprisoned followers of Falun Gong movement, China Tribunal says

An independent tribunal sitting in London has concluded that the killing of detainees in China for organ transplants is continuing, and victims include imprisoned followers of the Falun Gong movement.

The China Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who was a prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, said in a unanimous determination at the end of its hearings it was “certain that Falun Gong were used for forced organ harvesting”.

Related: Call for retraction of 400 scientific papers amid fears organs came from Chinese …read more

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