19 November 2015 - 11.00-12.30 - Room 5, Palais de l'Europe, Interpretation: FR/EN/DE
One of democracy’s main principles is the equality of citizens before state and law. How can we make sure that the law and the justice system can adequately protect citizens from abuse of their privacy and freedoms by corporations and governments?
initiative 1
Legal Campaigns, Revolution Truth, USA
Revolution Truth will present “Legal Campaigns”, whose goal is to take action against various governmental and corporate actors who are eroding democracy. The three primary foci are civil liberties, human rights, and transfers of sovereign power to corporate entities that thwart citizen access and agency in self-governance. Legal Campaigns will consist of multi-plaintiff or class action lawsuits, filed in US Federal Courts and the European Court of Human Rights, funded by global RevolutionTruth members. Campaigns will finance lawsuits to promote the “cause” at hand, to inspire wide swaths of people to crowdsource real power, and to deepen a sense of civic duty.
Ms Jennifer “Tangerine” BOLEN, USA, Executive Director and Founder of Revolution Truth
Jennifer “Tangerine” Bolen is the founder and Executive Director of RevolutionTruth. She is unwavering in her commitment to decreasing oppression, increasing liberty and ensuring just and equitable systems. Tangerine has a background in integrative medicine and health policy and a passion for truth, integrity and functioning democracies.
Holding intelligence agencies accountable through international law, Privacy International, United Kingdom
The idea behind Privacy International’s initiative is to better hold intelligence agencies to account by placing, in as many jurisdictions as possible, an explicit statement that all people, regardless of nationality, have the same level of protection afforded to them when it comes to spy operations. In some countries litigation can be taken to assert this, in others where reform of intelligence laws are underway, advocacy can be used to achieve the goal. The scope is one that can be adopted, with enough participation, as a developing international norm. The participants can be willing members of the public or civil society organisations.
Mr Matthew RICE, Advocacy Officer, Privacy International, United Kingdom
Matthew Rice is an Advocacy Officer at Privacy International working across the organisation engaging with international partners and strengthening their capacity on communications surveillance issues. He has previously worked at Privacy International as a consultant building the Surveillance Industry Index, the largest publicly available database on the private surveillance sector ever assembled. Matthew graduated from University of Aberdeen with an LLB (Hons.) and also has an MA in Human Rights from University College London.
Discussants are invited to take part in the Labs in order to share their experience with the presented democratic initiatives and try to bring broader perspectives to the following discussions.
Mr Kaoru OBATA, Professor of International Law, Nagoya University, JAPAN
Kaoru Obata is Professor of International Law since 2002. Currently he is the Director of the Center of Asian Legal Exchange (CALE), Nagoya University and a Member of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. He is the author of several books and many academic articles on international law and international human rights. The most recent publications include: The Constitionalization of the European Human Rights Law (in Japanese, Shinzansha, 2014),“The European Human Rights System beyond Europe: Interaction with Asia” Journal für Rechtspolitik, nr. 23 (2015), and “Challenges for the East Asian Constitutionalization in Globalized World” (in Japanese) Asian Law Bulletin (forthcoming).
Mr Nils MUIŽNIEKS, Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights
Nils Muižnieks was elected Commissioner for Human Rights on 24 January 2012 by the Parliamentary Assembly and took up his position on 1 April 2012. Born in 1964, Mr Muižnieks is a Latvian national educated in the United States of America, where he obtained a Ph.D. in political science at the University of California at Berkeley. He has been working in the field of human rights for the past two decades and has acquired extensive knowledge in the field of international human rights monitoring, training and education.
Mr Rudolf LENNKH, Austria, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Austria to the Council of Europe
Ambassador Rudolf Lennkh is Permanent Representative of Austria to the Council of Europe since 2013. He has served from 2009 to 2013 as Ambassador to Spain and Andorra and from 2001 to 2005 as Ambassador to Mexico and Belize. He held posts in the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, such as in the Americas Department (2005-2007) and as Director General for European Integration and Economic Affairs (2007-2009). Throughout his career, he has also worked in the Austrian embassies in Washington, Abidjan, Buenos Aires and Madrid.
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