Brazilian President Warns US On Surveillance, Calls For UN Reform

By Monika Ermert for Intellectual Property Watch

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff yesterday sent a stern warning to the United States over ongoing revelations of state espionage during the opening of the 68th United Nations General Assembly in New York and at the same time called for a multilateral framework for internet governance.

Rousseff’s remarks are available here or here [pdf].

Brazilian citizens, companies and government – according to reports based on documents leaked by former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Edward Snowden – were the target of US intelligence services.

Rousseff, who had already cancelled an earlier trip to Washington, called the actions “a breach of international law” and said: “A sovereign nation can never establish itself to the detriment of another sovereign nation. The right to safety of citizens of one country can never be guaranteed by violating fundamental human rights of citizens of another country. The arguments that the illegal interception of information and data aims at protecting nations against terrorism cannot be sustained.”

Brazil will not only protect itself by legislative and technical measures, Rousseff continued, but also will propose a “civilian multilateral framework for the governance and use of the Internet and to ensure the effective protection of data that travels through the web.

The United Nations, she said, should play a leading role in the effort to regulate the conduct of states with regard to internet technology. Rousseff listed cultural diversity, net neutrality, freedom of expression, privacy and fundamental rights, but also multilateral and democratic governance and universality as principles to protect.

The call to the UN to take up a role might re-open the decade-old discussion on the special role of the US administration with regard to core internet resources. At the same time, Rousseff also pointed out the need for UN reform, the limited representation of the UN Security Council was another issue of grave concern.

In an interview with The Hindu newspaper reprinted by the South Centre with Rousseff’s predecessor, former Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva spoke of a serious moment, a reluctance of G8 countries to accept the rise of emerging countries and the need for the US to “apologize to the world for thinking that it can control global communications and ignore the sovereignty of other countries.”

A potential “framework of commitments” for internet governance was also discussed at a two-day conference of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. The conference Wednesday will also address greater transparency as a potential antidote to state secrecy and surveillance.