The Estonian picked as the United Nation’s first digital privacy investigator was blocked on Friday by the German president of the UN Human Rights Council, after activist groups said she would not be a strong enough critic of US surveillance.
Katrin Nyman-Metcalf was the candidate ranked first by a “consultative group” of five ambassadors – from Poland, Chile, Greece, Algeria and chaired by Saudi Arabia. But when it came to approving her appointment, Joachim Ruecker said he was overruling their choice and proposing the second-ranked candidate instead, Malta’s Joseph Cannataci.
“Concerns were raised as to whether she was the best qualified candidate for this position,” Ruecker announced, saying he was reflecting the views of council members, many observer states and civil society stakeholders.
As the first person in the job, the investigator will be able to set the standard for the digital right to privacy, deciding how far to push governments that want to conduct surveillance for security reasons.
Nyman-Metcalf said Estonia was sometimes seen as pro-American and Ruecker had told her that civil society groups felt she was not “activist” enough.
“It seemed in this criticism that he had received about me, these people who had criticised me wanted somebody to wave a flag for [former US security contractor Edward] Snowden,” she said.
Leaving aside the absurdity that Saudi Arabia and Algeria are on the UN Human Rights Council, the move by Germany is revealing for what it says about Berlin’s attitude to two of its NATO allies.
And I must have missed the election where “civil society stakeholders” were given a say in the process….
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