EFF Backs Constitutional Challenge to Ecuador's Intelligence Law That Undermines Human Rights

"The LOI presents a structural flaw that undermines compliance with the principles of legality, legitimate purpose, suitability, necessity, and proportionality; it inverts the rule and the exception, with serious harm to rights enshrined constitutionally and under the Convention; and it prioritizes indeterminate state interests, in contravention of the ultimate aim of intelligence activities and state action, namely the protection of individuals, their rights, and freedoms."

"The LOI contains key terms like "national security," "integral security of the State," "threats," and "risks" that are left either undefined or so broadly framed that they could mean almost anything. This vagueness grants intelligence agencies wide, unchecked discretion, and fails short of the standard of legal certainty required under the American Convention on Human Rights (CADH). The LOI makes secrecy the rule rather than the exception, reversing the Inter-American principle of maximum disclosure,"

The Ley Orgánica de Inteligencia (LOI) and its implementing regulation enable disproportionate surveillance and entrenched secrecy that conflict with constitutional and Inter-American human rights standards. The LOI uses vague, overbroad definitions of terms like national security, integral security of the State, threats, and risks, granting intelligence agencies wide, unchecked discretion and falling short of the legal certainty required under the American Convention on Human Rights. The law makes secrecy the default through a classification regime and reverses the principle of maximum disclosure. Structural flaws undermine legality, legitimate purpose, suitability, necessity, and proportionality, privileging indeterminate state interests over protection of individuals and their rights.

Read at Electronic Frontier Foundation