Some history: 1. Council of Europe drafts, with U.S. encouragement, controversial "cybercrime" treaty: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02173.html 2. CoE decides it feels like banning racist remarks or other "hate speech." Whoops! The U.S. delegation remembers the First Amendment and bows out of the so-called First Protocol: http://www.politechbot.com/p-02785.html 3. CoE secretly meets last week to add a Second Protocol (aka another addition) to the treaty. That one, somewhat mysteriously, deals with intercepting and decrypting terrorist communiques: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03159.html List of CoE member nations: http://www.coe.int/T/E/Communication_and_Research/Public_Relations/About_Council_of_Europe/CoE_Map_&_Members/ -Declan --- From: Anonymous User <anonymousat_private> To: declanat_private Subject: UPI: Council of Europe Threatens US Expulsion Over Death Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 02:26:33 +0000 (UTC) woohoo! Can't wait to get as far away from those socialists as possible, and this is as good a reason as any. FYI, the CoE is the organization drafting the Convention on Cybercrime, which among other things outlaws "hate speech" on the Net (as defined by them): http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50529,00.html http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020222/wr_nm/tech_internet_hatespeech_dc_1 --- >From United Press International, available online at: http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=22022002-040505-3670r US faces European ban over death penalty By Chris White United Press International Published 2/22/2002 8:24 AM BRUSSELS, Belgium, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- The United States faces possible exclusion from the Council of Europe, where it enjoys observer status, over its continued use of the death penalty, a council spokeswoman said Friday. The comments follow a decision of the council's Committee of Ministers on Thursday to ban the death penalty in all circumstances, including for crimes committed during war and the imminent threat of war. "You know what Europe thinks of America," council spokeswoman Henriette Girard told United Press International. "It may now be a case of expelling the United States from its observer status. This is being looked at." The Council of Europe, comprised of 43 member countries from the European continent and five observer countries, is the first organization to have drawn up a legal text on the abolition of the death penalty, which allows no exception. It already was a de facto rule and no executions have taken place in member countries since March 1997. The latest initiative, adding a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, was promoted by Sweden in 2000, well before last September's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Called Protocol 13, the ban is to be presented for signature by members at the next session of the Committee of Ministers, the Council's decision-making body. [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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