"Legal Resources Centre, Privacy International and eight other human rights organizations have lodged submissions with the European Court of Human Rights challenging both the UK Government's mass interception program, and its access to US mass surveillance programs. Together, these programs violate the privacy of millions of people around the world," South Africa's Legal Resource Centre said in the press release on its Facebook page.
Legal Resource Centre added that the submission was lodged by the human rights groups from Canada, Ireland, Hungary and Egypt among others in the context of the facts revealed by former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.
In June 2013, Snowden started making revelations about widespread US global surveillance including revelations of mass surveillance of personal data by the United Kingdom's GCHQ together with the NSA. In the United States, he faces up to 30 years in prison on charges of espionage and theft of government property. Snowden repeatedly said he would return to the United States if Washington guaranteed him a fair trial.
