The letter, dated 12th December, has been sent by the Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) and is signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Centre and the UK’s Privacy International among others.
GILC writes:
“To our dismay and alarm, the convention continues to be a document that threatens the rights of the individual while extending the powers of police authorities, creates a low-barrier protection of rights uniformly across borders, and ignores highly-regarded data protection principles.”
The letter goes on to attack much of the draft convention, alleging that it contains threats to basic human rights and invades the sovereignty of nations. It calls on member states of the Council of Europe to not sign the final Convention.