Colombia is the world’s deadliest country for human rights defenders. For decades, Colombia’s security forces and intelligence services have used surveillance to deter human rights advocacy and silence criticism. In Members of José Alvear Restrepo Lawyers’ Collective Corporation v. Colombia, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights, this hemisphere’s top human rights body, has the opportunity—for the first time—to establish limits on digital surveillance by governments, define what constitutes effective oversight, and join other international experts in calling for a moratorium on the sale and transfer of spyware technology. The case challenges the Colombian government’s illegal surveillance practices that included wiretapping the Collective attorneys’ and staff’s phones, recording their conversations, capturing their emails, surveiling their homes; and then using the information gathered to orchestrate attacks.
On May 24, 2022, on behalf of Article 19, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fundación Karisma, and Privacy International, the clinic filed an amicus curiae brief in English and Spanish before the Inter-American Court. The amicus brief describes the Colombian government’s extensive surveillance apparatus and argues that the illegal surveillance of human rights defenders violates a constellation of human rights. Amici demonstrate that Colombian laws on surveillance, including the 2013 intelligence law, are vague, overbroad, and otherwise inadequate under international standards. Given Colombia’s extensive history of abusing intrusive technologies, amici urge the Inter-American Court to establish rigorous human rights protections that limit state surveillance and prevent future violations.