Privacy International, a campaigning body on issues relating to surveillance matters, has lodged on Tuesday an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to publish the treaty behind the intelligence sharing amongst the “Five Eyes” after the British government declined their initial applications, which the civil liberties group branded as a violation of the right to access of information.
The Anglophone countries behind the “Five Eyes” – the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – have a treaty that bounds them to joint cooperation in signals intelligence – they don’t spy on each other but instead share the intelligence they have collected. The Snowden revelations also revealed that the NSA shared the intelligence with a host other “third parties”.
The British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the equivalent to the American NSA, has turned down every freedom of information requests filed by Privacy International for details on how information was shared between the intelligence agencies of this global spy pact.
According to The Guardian quoting Rosa Curling of law firm Leigh Day:
“The UK’s Freedom of Information Act precludes government authorities from disclosing to the public information directly or indirectly supplied by GCHQ.
“This absolute exemption is unlawful and contrary to article 10 of the European convention on human rights, which provides for the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to receive information.”
The ECHR, located in Strasbourg, France, is an international court set up by the European Convention on Human Rights.
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