The EU is under fire for not assessing the human rights impacts of the surveillance technology they transferred to African nations as part of their Trust Fund for Africa (EUTFA). 

The technology was rolled out in 26 African nations and helped countries collect data to build biometric ID systems on a massive scale across their countries, as well as training police on surveillance techniques including social media monitoring, intercepting internet content and wiretapping. 

In 2021, a complaint was filed by Privacy International arguing that the EU should have taken out a human rights impact assessment prior to rolling out the technology, claiming that most of the governments did not have a stringent enough infrastructure to deal with potential abuse that comes with surveillance at this scale. 

The European Ombudsman found that the EU could not ‘demonstrate that the measures in place ensured a coherent and structured approach to assessing the human rights impacts of EUTFA projects.”

The Ombudsman went on to suggest that the EU would need to carry out assessments of human rights impacts of projects as well as mitigation measures for these potentialities. 

The original complaint outlines concerns in how the EU was training African governments in the use of surveillance equipment that is “prone for abuse” and that many EU nations also lack safeguards for the very same thing. 

In the complaint, methods of using fake profiles to track and examine others were detailed in both Algeria and Morocco. 

Methods in investigating mobile phones, wiretapping, and extracting data from devices were also taught to several nations as part of the EU’s outreach. 

According to the complaint, these technologies and techniques can pose a ‘grave risk’ to human rights without proper legal frameworks. 

The Ombudsman recognises that the need for a human rights inquiry was neglected considering the surveillance technology was rolled out in countries with a marked history of human rights issues and a lack of digital legislative infrastructure. 

While the EU’s original Commission did say it considered human rights throughout its action plan, it failed to make a formal assessment and therefore these concerns were sporadic and ineffective.

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The modules the original complaint brought to attention concerned extracting data from phones which has been regularly used by countries to crack down on political dissidents and target journalists. 

Ioannic Kouvakas, Senior Legal Officer at Privacy International said: “This landmark decision in response to our complaint marks a turning point for the European Union’s external policy and sets a precedent that will hopefully protect the rights of communities in some of the most vulnerable situations for the years to come.”

The original complainants are now urging the Commission to take action and formally assess the human right impacts of its surveillance technology transfer and take corresponding mitigation measures, as suggested by The Ombudsman. 

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