18. March 2021

The global significance of South Africa’s mass surveillance ruling

South Africa’s foreign SIGINT capabilities shut down.

by Jane DuncanProfessor, Department of Journalism, Film and Television, University of Johannesburg

Jane Duncan is a professor of Journalism, Film and Television. She is author of ‘Stopping the Spies: Constructing and Resisting the Surveillance State in South Africa’ (Wits University Press, 2018).

17. February 2021

Germany’s BND Act & recent CJEU case law

Some provisions of the draft bill seem incompatible with…

by Elspeth GuildQueen Mary University of London

Elspeth Guild is a Jean Monnet Professor ad personam in law at Queen Mary University of London and Emeritus Professor at Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands. She is also a partner at the London law firm Kingsley Napley. She regularly advises EU institutions on migration and asylum related matters and has written studies for the European Parliament on the European dimension of the refugee crisis 2016. She also advises the Council of Europe and has written two Issue Papers for the Commissioner for Human Rights, one on the right to leave a country the other on criminalization of migration. In 2009 her monograph Security and Migration in the 21st Century Polity, Cambridge, 2009 was published. In 2017 she co-edited with Stefanie Grant and Kees Groenendijk The Human Rights of Migrants in the 21st Century published with Routledge in the Focus series directed at the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.

16. February 2021

Aspects where Germany’s draft Federal Intelligence Services Act misses the mark

The draft BNDG undermines requirements set by the…

by Ulrich KelberFederal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information

Born on 29 March 1968 married, 5 children 1987 to 1993 studied computer science and biology in Bonn, 1993 to 1995 worked as research associate at the GMD Research Centre for Information Technology, 1996 to 2002 knowledge management consultant at an IT company (consultative function from September 2000 to September 2002), 2000 to 2018 Member of the German Bundestag, Won the direct mandate in the city of Bonn in 2002, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017, 2005 to 2013 Vice-Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) parliamentary group for the issues of environment, nature conservation and nuclear safety, food, agriculture and consumer protection and sustainability, December 2013 to March 2018 Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Justice and Consumer Protection, Since January 2019, Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

15. December 2020

The unwanted reader: BND draft bill would continue the surveillance of journalists and their sources

The German government fails to secure essential…

by Lisa DittmerAdvocacy Officer for Internet Freedom, Reporters Without Borders Germany

Lisa Dittmer is the Advocacy Officer for Internet Freedom at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Germany. She works at the intersection of digital and security policy and press freedom on issues such as surveillance and platform regulation.

11. December 2020

The BND’s future foreign intelligence collection is likely to remain poorly overseen

The German Chancellery’s new draft bill ensures no…

by André HahnMember of the German Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr)

Dr. André Hahn, Member of the Bundestag, is the Deputy Chairman of the Left Party parliamentary group and a member of the German Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr).

30. November 2020

Is SIGINT coming to an end?

The German foreign intelligence service must remain…

by Patrick SensburgMember of the German Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr)

Patrick Sensburg is a member of the German Parliament (since 2009) as well as member of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel and the Council of Elders. He is also chairman of the Committee for the Scrutiny of Elections, Immunity and the Rules of Procedure and has been President of the Association of Reservists of the German Armed Forces since 2019. He was Chairman of the European Law Committee from 2009 to 2017 and Chairman of the NSA Inquiry Committee from 2014 until 2017. Sensburg is also Professor for Public Law and European Law. From 2006 to 2008 he was Professor at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Sciences in the Department Branch of Federal Criminal Police. Since 2008 he is Professor for Public Law and European Law at the University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration in North Rhine-Westphalia (HSPV NRW). Since 2016 he is Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna and at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE). He is one of the editors of the Journal for Intelligence, Propaganda and Security Studies (JIPSS).