Germany, Brazil want UN privacy resolution

Germany and Brazil are working on a UN General Assembly resolution aimed at highlighting international anger at US data snooping in other countries, diplomats said Friday.

The resolution would not mention the United States and would call for extending the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to internet activities.

"German and Brazilian diplomats met counterparts from Europe and Latin America today to discuss a draft resolution," a UN diplomat involved in the talks said on condition of anonymity.

"The aim is to send a message to those who abuse the system," added the diplomat.

Germany has been angered by eavesdropping on Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone by US intelligence. Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff cancelled a trip to the United States last month over allegations the National Security Agency intervened her office's communications.

Rousseff had already announced that Brazil would seek a UN measure on privacy.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights went into force in 1976, before the internet started.

But Brazil and Germany want a provision of the covenant that says "no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation" extended to cyberspace.

The two countries plan to put the resolution to a UN General Assembly committee that handles human rights.

© 2013 AFP