UN adopts anti-spy resolution amid US scandal

In the most vocal international criticism of US spying efforts, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution on Wednesday aimed at protecting the right to privacy against unlawful surveillance.

Germany and Brazil introduced the resolution following disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the US super spy agency had been eavesdropping on foreign leaders, including Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff and Germany’s Angela Merkel.

The resolution calls for all UN member states to guarantee privacy rights to users of the Internet and other forms of electronic communications. It “affirms that the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, including the right to privacy.”

It also urges countries “to review their procedures, practices and legislation regarding the surveillance of communications, their interception and collection of personal data, including mass surveillance, interception and collection, with a view to upholding the right to privacy of all their obligations under international human rights law.”

Brazil’s Rousseff canceled a state visit to Washington after leaks that Brazil is the top NSA target in Latin America. Classified documents revealed by Snowden show that the NSA had monitored Rousseff’s cellphone and hacked into the internal network of state-run oil company Petrobras.

After leaks that the NSA monitored Merkel’s cell phone and swept up millions of French telephone records, European leaders also expressed anger.

The UN resolution expresses deep concern at “the negative impact” that such surveillance, “in particular when carried out on a mass scale, may have on the exercise and enjoyment of human rights.”