Access Now Policy Team

Access has written up an overview of the top procedural and substantive concerns to look out for at ITU Plenipotentiary as well as recommendations for relevant and productive areas for the ITU to focus its work on in the coming four years.

Access, in coordination with partners, has submitted a comment in advance of the Human Rights Council 2015 Universal Periodic Review of the United States of America, which calls for reform of current surveillance laws, including the establishment of remedial mechanisms.

Access launched www.mlat.info, a website that makes it easy to explore the text and geographical scope of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs).

Without much media attention, the heads of state of the African Union (AU) agreed to a landmark convention this summer affecting many aspects of digital life.

This week Access submitted comments to the FCC urging it to use its full authority to reclassify broadband internet access service as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act — the only viable way the agency can safeguard the values that enabled the internet to become a global force for commerce, culture, free expression, and innovation.

In a scathing new report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warns that mass surveillance is “emerging as a dangerous habit rather than an exceptional measure” and that “the very existence of a mass surveillance programme…creates an interference with privacy.” The commissioner also slams judicial review processes, writing that in many countries they “amounted…to an exercise in rubber-stamping.”

PCLOB Section 702 surveillance report fails to consider the rights of those most affected by Section 702 mass surveillance programs, or address the pressing need for legislative reform.

On June 25, the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a resolution to develop a treaty holding transnational companies legally responsible for human rights abuses.

On the 13th of June in Geneva, the WSIS + 10 High Level Event (WSIS + 10 HLE) concluded, culminating in the endorsement of two outcome documents, the WSIS+10 Statement on the Implementation of WSIS Outcomes, and the WSIS+10 Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015.
At the conclusion of the HLE, Access joined APC, CDT, CTS/FGV, Global Partners Digital, IFLA, the Internet Democracy Project, IDEA, and KICTAnet in making the following statement.