[www.edri.org] Several leading human rights NGOs from Macedonia issued a reaction to the Parliament and the Government of Republic of Macedonia on 24 June 2008, regarding the recent changes in the Law on Criminal Procedure and the Law on Interception of Communications, allowing special investigative measures (such as surveillance).

The Foundation Open Society Institute - Macedonia, the Association for Criminal Justice and Criminology of Macedonia and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia expressed deep concern because of the fast-track adoption of changes in the legislation "without no expert discussion whatsoever." (…)

As a result of expert analysis of the new legislation, the signatories stated: "Besides enlarging the possibility for implementation of special investigative procedures for crimes outside of the sphere of organized crime, these changes also allow wide preventive implementation of these measures, even in cases without reasonable doubt of hard crimes and corruption. These changes are not in line with the European and world human rights standards, nor are common as acceptable method for fighting crime and corruption."

A similar manner of adopting the new version of the Law on Interception of Communications is also expected these days. The current draft also raises serious concerns regarding abuse of privacy.

(…)

The EDRi-member Metamorphosis Foundation also voices concern from the perspective of the development of the information society, especially because the changes in the legislation do not define the mechanisms to control and prevent arbitrary abuse of the new powers, and because the minimum standards for public consultation including all stakeholders have not been met during the drafting and adoption. New technologies enable easy ways that directly influence the lives of the growing number of Internet users in Macedonia, which can involve privacy abuse; therefore carrying out the legislative process in an inclusive and transparent manner is of special significance.

(…)

Parliament passed with its final hearing on July 15 a controversial amendment to the law that denies six opposition parties boycotting Parliament state funding.

The new law makes the New Rights Party; Freedom Party; Movement for United Georgia; Georgia’s Way; Party of People and National Forum ineligible for the funding. The amendment deprives them of GEL 600,000 in total. Opposition parties have condemned the ruling party’s initiative as a "punitive measure" and "persecution" by the authorities for their decision not to enter the new parliament.

The Conservative Party - part of the opposition coalition - will receive state funding even though it have renounced its MP mandates because it won more than 3% of votes in the 2006 local elections.

The same rule will mean that the Republican and Industrialist parties will also continue receiving funding from the state budget. Despite winning less than 4% of the vote in the May 21 parliamentary elections, they each got more than 3% in the local elections.

The Labor Party, whose leaders still remain MPs, will be eligible for the funding and is expected to receive about GEL 500,000.

Other parties, which will receive state funding are the Christian-Democrats, On our Own and the Georgian Troupe; the later two were part of the opposition coalition, but unlike other parties from the coalition, took their seats in Parliament.

[International Herald Tribune] The US Senate gave final approval to a major expansion of the government's surveillance powers. The measure, approved Wednesday by a vote of 69 to 28, is the biggest restructuring of federal surveillance law in 30 years. It includes a divisive element that Bush had deemed essential: legal immunity for the phone companies that cooperated in the National Security Agency wiretapping program he approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The vote came two and a half years after public disclosure of the wiretapping program set off a fierce national debate over the balance between protecting the country from another terrorist strike and ensuring civil liberties. The measure gives the executive branch broader latitude in eavesdropping on people abroad and at home who it believes are tied to terrorism and it reduces the role of a secret intelligence court in overseeing some operations. Supporters insisted that the plan includes enough safeguards to protect citizens' civil liberties, including reviews by several inspectors general. The final plan, which restructures the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act passed by Congress in 1978 after Watergate, reflected both political reality and legal practicality, supporters said. Wiretapping orders approved by secret orders under the previous version of the law were set to begin expiring in August unless Congress acted.

[BBC] The US senate has passed a bill to shield telephone companies who helped in the White House's controversial warrantless wiretaps programme. The bill also grants the US government the power to continue with the telephone surveillance scheme. (…) The bill was passed in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support last month, after House Democrats reached a compromise with the Republicans over the provisions to grant telecommunications companies immunity from prosecution. (…) telephone companies would not be automatically immune, but courts would be obliged to dismiss a suit against a firm if it is able to produce written certification that the White House had asked it to participate in the programme and had assured the firm it was legal.