The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, Ana Brian Nougrères, sent a letter to the Government of Montenegro expressing serious concern regarding the Draft Law on the National Security Agency (NSA). It should be recalled that the Draft was withdrawn from parliamentary procedure at the end of July under pressure from NGOs and the opposition.
The Special Rapporteur warned that Articles 13, 15, and 18 of the Draft Law grant the NSA overly broad powers for surveillance and data collection without adequate judicial oversight, which may lead to violations of the right to privacy and other human rights guaranteed by international law. She took into account the amendments subsequently proposed by the Government and concluded that “despite these amendments, certain shortcomings remain and additional changes are needed to protect the right to privacy”.
The Special Rapporteur emphasized that the right to privacy protects individuals from arbitrary and unlawful interference with their personal and family life, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights. She particularly pointed out that the Draft does not provide sufficient judicial guarantees, independent oversight, nor was it adopted through a process of public consultation, even though all of these are fundamental principles of democratic governance and human rights protection.
The intervention of the Special Rapporteur represents a confirmation of previous warnings by NGOs and the demands that the Government align the proposed provisions of the NSA Law with international human rights standards and conduct a public consultation on the matter.
In a joint statement in July, non-governmental organizations warned that the proposed law failed on several grounds to meet the needs for a thorough reform of the NSA into a modern, professional, and democratically controlled security service that respects human rights, and called for a public consultation to be opened, with the assistance of experts and the interested public, to propose adequate solutions.
Among other things, the Special Rapporteur requested the Government of Montenegro to:
- clarify how Articles 13, 15, and 18 meet the UN Human Rights Committee’s recommendations regarding the introduction of judicial authorization for the collection of intelligence data;
- explain how internationally recognized procedural standards that prevent abuse of surveillance will be ensured;
- and state whether and how it plans to conduct a publicly accessible consultation process with citizens and civil society on the revised version of the law.
At the end of the letter, the Special Rapporteur announced that her communication, along with any response from the Government, would be publicly published on the UN website and later included in the regular report to the Human Rights Council.
We call on the Government and Parliament of Montenegro to seriously consider these recommendations of the Special Rapporteur and to include civil society in the preparation and adoption of legislation of such importance.
The translation of the letter in Montenegrin was prepared by HRA and is available here.
Human Rights Action (HRA)
Women’s Rights Center (WRC)
Centre for Civic Education (CCE)