Re: "And who shall guard the guardians?"

[Arun Mehta <amehta@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in>]

At 10:20 03/08/96 -0700, Martin Minow wrote:

>Does the English Only bill conflict with the UN Declaration of
>Human Rights (Article 2):
..
>For that matter, does the escrowed crypto legislation conflict with
>Article 12:
..
>My understanding is that the United States is (finally) a signatory
>to the Declaration.

A couple of points need clarification:

A Declaration isn't, in international law, binding. A covenant
is, provided you haven't just signed it but also ratified it
(i.e. made it a part of national law). So the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights is basically just a statement of good
intentions. Much more important, legally, is the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR),
http://www.pluggedin.org/amnesty/rights4.htm
 which the US *ratified* not so long ago.

Says the ICCPR 

Article 17 

1. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful
interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence,
nor to unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law
against such interference or attacks. 

Article 19 

1. Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without
interference.
2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression;
this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart
information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers,
either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or
through any other media of his choice.
3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2
of this article carries with it special duties and
responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain
restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law
and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
(b) For the protection of national security or of public
order (ordre public), or of public health or morals. 
________

Key, in Article 17, is the term "unlawful." With this escape
clause, the US gov has no problems, long as they make appropriate laws.

Article 19 is more interesting, because restrictions must be
shown to be necessary...

Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta@cpsr.org
http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/  finger amehta@cerfnet.com for public key