To Members of the United Nations Human Rights Council
Re: Request for Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council to urgently denounce and mandate independent investigations into the situation of human rights violations facilitated by the sale, export, transfer, and use of surveillance technology
Excellencies,
We, the undersigned civil society organizations and independent experts, call on Member States of the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) to take urgent action at the ongoing 48th regular session of the HRC to denounce the unfolding and unprecedented scale of human rights violations by States facilitated by the use of the NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware and provide immediate, robust support for impartial and transparent inquiries into the abuses.
We are deeply alarmed by the Pegasus Project revelations, a major investigation conducted by Forbidden Stories, and a consortium of 16 media organizations, alongside Amnesty International who was a technical partner in the investigations. The investigation was based on a leak of 50,000 phone numbers of potential targets of NSO Group surveillance technology, a list which includes journalists, activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, world leaders, and civil society actors. So far, at least 180 journalists in 20 countries were identified as potential targets of Pegasus spyware between 2016 to June 2021.
Adding to the revelations, further cases of targeted surveillance continue to unfold. The most recent victim targeted by Pegasus spyware is the Budapest-based photojournalist Dániel Németh. According to an investigation by media organization Direkt36 and forensic analysis by Citizen Lab, independently validated by Amnesty International, two of Németh’s phones were hacked by a government client of the NSO in early July 2021. Németh is not the only Hungarian journalist to be hacked using Pegasus, Amnesty International’s forensic checks confirmed that two of Direkt36 investigative journalists, András Szabó and Szabolcs Panyi, and another investigative reporter, Brigitta Csikász, were also hacked in 2019.
The National Cybersecurity Agency of France (ANSSI) confirmed that digital traces of the Pegasus spyware have been found on the phones of three French journalists: an investigative journalist at Mediapart Lénaïg Bredoux, the website’s director Edwy Plenel, and a senior member of staff at France 24. Previously, the phone numbers of France’ President, Emmanuel Macron, former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, and 14 serving ministers appeared in the leaked data of the Pegasus Project.
Further shocking evidence unearthed by the Pegasus Project shows that friends and family members of the slain and dismembered Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, were also targeted with Pegasus spyware before and after his murder despite the NSO Group’s continuous denial of involvement. According to Amnesty International’s forensic analysis, the iPhone of Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was targeted and successfully infected four days after Khashoggi’s murder, and multiple times in the subsequent days. Forensics checks also confirmed that his wife Hanan Elatr was targeted with the spyware, as was his friend, and former director-general of Al Jazeera, Wadah Khanfar whose phone was hacked. Other potential targets include his son Abdullah Khashoggi, and the British human rights lawyer Rodney Dixon who represented Cengiz in filing legal action against the murder of Khashoggi.
Media reports noted that at least 35 journalists were selected for potential targeting with Pegasus by the Moroccan authorities, three of whom were prosecuted under questionable circumstances, subjected to state-sanctioned campaigns of intimidation and harassment, and imprisoned. Taoufik Bouachrine, editor of Akhbar El-Youm newspaper, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of human trafficking, sexual assault, rape, and prostitution. His colleague Soulaimane Raissouni was also arrested on sexual assault charges in May 2020, and was sentenced to five years in prison on July 9, 2021. Journalist and human rights activist Omar Radi was also sentenced on July 19, 2021 to six years in prison on dubious charges of espionage and rape. In June 2020, Amnesty International revealed that Radi was targeted using NSO spyware just three days after NSO Group released its human rights policy.
This is not the first time the NSO’s Pegasus spyware has been linked to human rights abuses. In 2016, Citizen Lab investigated one of the early uses of Pegasus by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to spy on prominent Emirati human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor, who is serving 10 years in prison in solitary confinement and under inhumane conditions. The failure of States to protect people’s rights and uphold their obligations has fostered a culture of total impunity and allowed private digital surveillance companies as perpetrators of human rights violations to flourish with no transparency or accountability.
Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council cannot allow for this staggering widespread surveillance to continue unchallenged and unchecked. As a group of U.N. Special Procedures recently warned: “It is highly dangerous and irresponsible to allow the surveillance technology and trade sector to operate as a human rights-free zone.” Despite the mounting evidence of the spyware’s links to human rights abuses, the NSO Group continues to repeat its false claim that its spyware is only used for legitimate purposes like investigating crime and terror. The secretive surveillance industry must be held to account.
In light of these grave concerns, we urge Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council to specifically denounce these abuses and mandate comprehensive measures to investigate and prevent further violations linked to the sale, export, and use of Pegasus spyware and cases of targeted surveillance.
Council Members should offer adequate financial and technical support to the U.N. Special Procedures, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and any other bodies relevant and able to execute the necessary inquiries. Member States must cooperate, enabling investigators to have adequate access to any persons, evidence, and materials requested, and ensure that they are able to travel and operate safely and without fear of reprisal or obstruction. The findings of these inquiries should be reported to the U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. General Assembly, and provide recommendations on the relevant global human rights standards and regulatory frameworks that govern the development, sale, and transfer of surveillance technology, as well as any gaps in the existing mechanisms or their implementation at the local, national, and international levels, in order to prevent and mitigate the threats of surveillance technologies.
Until and unless such recommendations are developed and adopted, we reiterate the previous call made by U.N. human rights experts and civil society groups on governments to immediately implement a global moratorium on the sale, export, transfer, and use of private surveillance technology until States have adopted robust legal safeguards to protect individuals from unlawful surveillance, invasion of their privacy, and threats to their freedom of expression, assembly, and association.
Sincerely,
CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS
Access Now
Acción Constitucional
Advocacy Initiative for Development (AID)
AfricTivistes
Africa Open Data and Internet Research Foundation (AODIRF)
ALQST for Human Rights
Americans for Democracy & Human Rights in Bahrain
Amnesty International
ARTICLE 19: Global Campaign for Free Expression
Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC), Argentina
Barracón Digital – Honduras
Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy
Body and Data
CLEX
Center for Digital Resilience
Centre d’Actions pour le Développement (CAD-Congo Brazzaville)
Centro de Derechos de Mujeres Honduras
Código Sur
Civil Liberties Union for Europe
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
DefendDefenders
Derechos Digitales – América Latina
Digital Rights Foundation
Digital Rights Kashmir
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Equality Now
ESOHumanRights
European Center for Democracy & Human Rights
European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL)
Fight for the Future
Freedom of the Press Foundation
Fundación Acceso
Fundación Datos Protegidos
Fundación InternetBolivia.org
Fundación Karisma
Global Voices
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Heartland Initiative
Humano Derecho Radio Estación
i freedom Uganda Network
IFEX
Internet Sans Frontières
Iraqi Network for Digital Rights – INSMnetwork
Jordan Open Source Association – JOSA
Kandoo
Kijiji Yeetu, Kenya
Majal.org
Manushya Foundation
Masaar- Technology and Law Community
Media Diversity Institute – Armenia
Media Matters for Democracy (MMfD)
MENA Rights Group
Metamorphosis, Foundation for Internet and Society
Miaan Group
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)
Oakland Privacy
OpenMedia
Organization of the Justice Campaign
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project – OCCRP
Paradigm Initiative (PIN)
PEN America
Pen Iraq
Privacy International
Ranking Digital Rights
Red Line for Gulf (RL4G)
Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales (R3D)
RedesAyuda
Reporters Without Borders (RSF)
Restore The Fourth
Sassoufit collective
SeguDigital
Simply Secure
SMEX
SOAP
SocialTIC
Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet)
S.T.O.P. – The Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
Sursiendo, Comunicación y Cultura Digital
The Freedom Initiative
The Tor Project
Transparency International
Ubunteam
Usuarios Digitales – Ecuador
Venezuela inteligente
Videre est Credere
Visualizing Impact
Wikimedia France
Women ICT Advocacy Group (WIAG)
Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)
Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), Nigeria
Zaina Foundation
7amleh – Arab Center for Social Media Advancement
INDEPENDENT EXPERTS
Camille Francois, Affiliate, Harvard Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society.
Harlo Holmes, Freedom of the Press Foundation.
John Scott-Railton, Senior Researcher, Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
Ron Deibert, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
Sarah McKune.
Siena Anstis, Senior Legal Advisor, Citizen Lab, at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.