Research

The right to protest & fair trial violations in France

We have conducted a research backgrounder for Privacy International on fair trial violations experienced in France in the context of the protection of the right to protest. We will link to the report once it is published.

Litigation

Peaceful activism flagged as terrorism by the police

We have joined proceedings initiated by peaceful activist Frank van der Linde. In 2014 the Dutch police started monitoring Mr. van der Linde after he demonstrated and publicly opposed racism, climate change, animal cruelty, homelessness, and other social injustices. Soon his social media activity was surveilled. By 2019 the Dutch police and the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) had put him on a terror list and shared his personal data with the German Police, Europol and Interpol. When Mr. van der Linde challenged the police for sharing his data and categorising him as "terrorist", this is what they answered: "[t]here was no other choice than to choose the field 'terrorism'. The other options relate more to forms of serious crime, such as organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, etc. The term ‘terrorism’ is a broad term." The Police maintained the categorisation.

A month later Mr. van der Linde was reached by a whistleblower from the Dutch Police. He was told his file contained grossly mischaracterised and biased information about him. Lately, Mr. van der Linde asked Dutch judges that the data handling practices of the police should be reviewed independently. Judges have agreed and ordered the audit... Yet the Dutch police refuses to cooperate. More details here and here.

This case illustrates a worrying pattern. We recommend to read the 2024 report by the Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention on the state of repression of environmental defender, as an illustration of this trend.

Kenyan Biometric IDs​

Idemia is a world leader on biometric recognition. It was sanctioned by the World Bank for corruption, was found to have sold technology to China and, has blackmailed governments with withholding biometric data. The Kenyan Parliament voted that Idemia should be prohibited from operateing in Kenya. Idemia sued the democratic decision of a sovereign state, and won on legal technicalities.

In 2021 Kenya's High Court found that the deployment of the biometric IDs project had neglected the population's right to privacy to such a degree that it violated the country's Constitution. In 2022 we worked with the Nubian (tribe) Forum, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, Haki na Sheria and Algorithm Watch to bring a case against Idemia (French multinational company) before the French data protection authority. This case is ongoing. Due to its sensitivity, more will be said once the case is closed.

More details in the resources below.

Kenyan Biometric IDs​

In 2022 we worked with the Nubian (tribe) Forum and the Kenyan Human Rights Commission to bring a corporate responsibility law case against Idemia. France has pioneered an interesting corporate responsibility legislation that inspired the European Union's work on a similar regional legislation. Together with our partner organisation in Kenya, the goal of the case was to test this law in courts to combat harmful practices of Idemia in Kenya. These goals were met, although we noted serious issues in the process. For instance, translation of the meetings with the multinational (French/English) was at the cost of the Kenyan NGOs. Watching a multinational earning billions refuse to cover costs for a couple of thousands to the NGO of an African tribe is not a joyful experience, as white Europeans. Besides, the French corporate responsibility law is a pioneer and yet, we had no clarity as to whether the proceedings would last a few months or dozens of years so African NGOs had an incentive to look for a quick settlement.

​ ​ Press release, July 24, 2023, IDEMIA agrees to Vigilance Plan Improvements over Kenyan Digital ID Human Rights Challenge
​ ​ Press release, July 29, 2022, Data Rights Files Case Against Biometric Tech Giant IDEMIA for Failure to Consider Human Rights

Data Rights Resources

• Roussey L., 2023, Digital Identity Systems: Lessons from Kenya (from 1:07:51 on), video presentation at the Oxford Internet Institute
• • This presentation specifies principles of EU human rights law that can be used to protect communities living outside of Europe.
    
• Roussey L., 2023, Digital ID Litigation & Dual Use video presentation at the Alan Turing Institute
• Coming soon, Privacy International report on the surveillance of individuals exercising their right to protest
  

External Resources

Social science: The mere belief of being surveilled changes our behavior

• Penney, J., 2016, Chilling Effects: Online Surveillance and Wikipedia Use, Berkeley Technology Law Journal

HRDs focused on the protection of the environment

• United Nations
• • Complaint email address and conditions for support by the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention , for Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) working on environmental protection
  • Report on the State repression of environmental protest and civil disobedience: a major threat to human rights and democracy, 2024, by the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention 

• National reports
• • Spain: Irídia lead a coalition to demand the end of the practice of sending undercover police officers looking to engage in romantic and sexual relations with women in social justice movements in order to surveil and sabotage them. 
    
  • United Kingdom (UK)
  • • The best way to start discovering the issue of undercover police targeting activists in the UK may be this Chaos Computer Club conference of 2015, Resisting Surveillance: it's not just about the metadata. Lily for instance mentions finding out that nights they spent together with her "partner" were paid as extra-hours. 
    • In 2021 the British court specialised on surveillance questions found that one of the women, who sued British Police, had suffered a violation of many of her rights under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Specifically, Article 3 (freedom from inhuman or degrading treatment); that her right to respect for private and family life under Article 8 had been infringed; and that she was also the victim of infringements of Article 10 (freedom of expression) and Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association) as well as Article 14 (non-discrimination - here, sexism). 
    • Some of the policemen even had children with the women they they used to spy on and sabbotage environmental and animal rights movements. Here is an example.
      
  • France, Human Rights Organisations report on their independent observations of the "water war" protests of March 2023. The report is eye-opening on the posture of law enforcement and the French government, treating HRDs as war-like bloodthirsty foes. Independent observers found that law enforcement statements were often grossly incorrect, making omissions and highly disproportionate. They also denounce that HRD are inappropriately tracked even in hospitals, leading to the  environmental movement having to create a parallel health strategy to help citizens use their right to protest without fear of seeking health support after being hurt by law enforcement weapons. 
  • • Warning: The report is painful to read and may be triggering. Pictures of some of the wounds.
    • Language: The report is in French only. If there is appetite for translation we can see what we can do.