This international project will monitor and influence the increasingly common formation of civil liberties-sensitive security policies through international organizations.

"Governments are increasingly pushing the illiberal policies through international treaty organizations, then bringing them back home", says Dr. Gus Hosein, Senior Fellow with Privacy International. "This is the strategy we call policy laundering. The UK has recently laundered communications surveillance policies through the European Union and ID cards through the United Nations. The Government returns home to Parliament, holding their hands up saying 'We are obliged to act because of international obligations' and gets what they want with little debate."

"The UK is not alone. This is a common practice for the U.S. and across Europe. The practice spreads also to anti-terrorism policies in Asia and the Asian-Pacific. Governments are going global, and so must we."

"Behind closed doors, Governments are agreeing to harmonize their surveillance laws and reduce safeguards. We are going to shed light on these practices, and campaign against these practices, bringing pressure to these international organisations and to national parliaments."

Numerous cases of policy laundering already exist, including

* The U.S. and the UK pushing for biometric passports at the UN-level agency the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Now the UK is going to start taking fingerprints from all Britons and establish an ID card, with Prime Minister Tony Blair claiming that this is merely a response to the demands of the U.S. and the UN. See PI's letter to the ICAO, and the LSE ID Report monitoring the claims of the UK Government.

* The UK, Ireland, Sweden, and France are pushing communications surveillance policies through the EU. This compels all telephone and internet companies to keep records on all of our phone calls, emails, and websites visited. The Justice minister of Ireland recently noted that he was looking to the 'EU cavalry' to come to his aid in the face of opposition within his own country to these policies. See PI's analysis of the Irish practice, and PI's campaign against the EU on data retention.

* A number of treaties and agreements are increasing the flow of information between Governments. There is now systematic transfer of personal information between various Governments on all citizens, passengers, and bank account holders, based on agreements established at the European Union, the Council of Europe between the U.S. and a number of countries, and the Financial Action Task Force. See PI's analysis of the 'negotiations' between the EU and the U.S. on the surveillance of passengers.

There are many more cases and instances of policy laundering. For more information, please see our Primer on Policy Laundering.

"Behind closed doors, Governments are agreeing to harmonize their surveillance laws and reduce safeguards. We are going to shed light on these practices, and campaign against these practices, bringing pressure to these international organisations and to national parliaments."

PI said that the Policy Laundering Project will focus on building up the capacity to monitor and influence international governmental organizations (IGOs), building connections to civil society groups and government officials in nations around the world, and keeping those officials and groups informed about the ways in which their governments stand to be affected by various policy laundering attempts.

The Policy Laundering Project is funded with assistance from the Open Society Institute's Information Programme.

The project is being launched on Wednesday, 13 April, at the annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in Seattle, Washington. USA.

Relevant websites:

*  http://www.policylaundering.org and
*  http://www.privacyinternational.org/policylaundering