In October 2021, Privacy International together with Homo Digitalis, The Border Violence Monitoring Network, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), and Sea-Watch submitted a complaint to the European Ombudsman, Ms Emily O’Reilly, calling on her to investigate programmes related to the provision of surveillance equipment and related expertise by the European Union to third countries.
These practices can lead to significant risks for vulnerable groups, such as human rights activists, in third states, and our action sought to investigate whether due diligence and necessary human rights impact assessments were carried out by EU organisations before they formulated these ‘cooperation’ programmes.
It is a great honour and pleasure that the European Ombudsman has decided to investigate our case and shed light on these practices. You can see the relevant communication here.
We recall that at the same time, we had also submitted an open letter to the European Data Protection Supervisor, Mr. Wojciech Wiewiórowski, informing him of our actions!