Saoradh condemns the passing into British Law of the ‘Investigatory Powers’ legislation which is the latest oppressive tool in the arsenal of British rule in Ireland. Since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 the British Government have continued to erode the rights of people in the six counties who will now face the brunt of these draconian laws that, in effect, will diminish the few civil liberties we have left.

The Investigatory Powers Bill has now been passed in both houses in the British Parliament. This is the most extreme and intrusive surveillance legislation ever passed by a government in the western world. This means that British Military Intelligence Agencies such as MI5, MI6 and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) now have carte blanche to hack and confiscate all personal/private data, even if you’re not a suspect, for ‘investigatory’ purposes, all under the guise of ‘National Security.’ These British intelligence agencies have already been intruding and trespassing in our private lives for years. Recently the investigatory powers tribunal, the only court that hears complaints against British state agencies, ruled that they had been unlawfully collecting massive volumes of confidential personal data without proper oversight for 17 years.

First introduced by then Home Secretary Theresa May in November 2015, this Bill will become an Act of British Law when the British Monarch, Lizzy Windsor gives it the ‘Royal Assent’ before the end of the year. This legislation raises major concerns among human rights and privacy groups and is set to circumvent citizen’s rights to a private life, enshrined under European Law. Reacting to the news, US whistleblower Edward Snowden tweeted: “The UK has just legalised the most extreme surveillance in the history of western democracy. It goes further than many autocracies.” Also the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Strasburger said: “…we have created the tools for repression…” Not one political party in stormont has uttered a single word of concern about this.

This intrusive and draconian legislation will be enforced through current forms of British laws in Ireland such as the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) 2000, the Police Act 1997 and Justice and Security Act 2013. These powers will be controlled by the ‘Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.’ Theresa May will appoint an investigatory powers commissioner (IPC) and judicial commissioners to oversee all of this. They will replace the previous commissioners who oversaw, interception and communications data powers under RIPA, covert surveillance and covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) (Informers).

The ‘Investigatory Powers’ will be available to British agencies such as the PSNI and British Intelligence services (MI5). These draconian powers allows these British agencies to intrude into people’s private lives. It allows them to hack, computers, mobile phones and all other electronic storage devices. These powers also allow access in order to exploit software so as to gain control of devices and networks for “monitoring purposes.” For example, by covertly downloading the contents of your phone, or remotely accessing your computer.

All data communications companies will now be compelled to hand over people’s personal information when served with a notice, and remove encryption when requested. The British “intelligence services” will be able to confiscate bulk data sets, retaining massive amounts of data from an ever-expanding section of society such as medical records, phone conversations, every website visited and all electronic messaging. Internet Service Providers will now be compelled to keep all your data for twelve months.
Of major concern for people in the six counties, in particular Republicans and Nationalists, is that these powers will now be used to hinder evidence gathering in legal cases against British human rights abuses. Could the PSNI now, without cause, confiscate all or any electronic media type device or phones during stop and search incidents – thus preventing a victim from gathering evidence? Given the history of MI5 in Ireland, there is little doubt that these powers will be abused, with little oversight when it comes to Republicans in order to disrupt any ongoing or future legal cases against PSNI and Mi5 harassment.

Saoradh calls on all human rights lawyers as well as the Law Society, the CAJ and human rights groups and activists, political parties and politicians, to voice their opposition to this pervasive and oppressive British legislation – that undoubtedly denies Irish citizens the right to a free and private life.