[JURIST] The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] on Thursday released a report arguing that strong encryption is elemental to basic human rights. The report hails [The Hill report] encryption and anonymity as tools that allow individuals to “exercise their rights to freedom of opinion and expression in a digital age,” and thus deserve to be protected. The report strongly opposes intentionally compromising encryption, “even for arguably legitimate purposes.” These “backdoors” weaken the online security of all users, something it calls on States to avoid. The report also urges the US Congress to consider passing the Secure Data Act. This bill would prevent the US government from requiring companies to include intentional compromises in their encryption, an action some federal officials defend as necessary in case data must be decrypted for criminal or national security investigations.

The report comes at a time when the US Congress is considering whether to extend or replace its data collection program, which is set to expire at the end of this month. Last week the US Senate blocked [JURIST report] a House-approved bill that would end the mass collection of phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA) in an after midnight vote of 57-42. Several US lawmakers have called [JURIST report] for a review of the government’s surveillance activity in light of reports revealing phone and Internet monitoring. The focus on government surveillance policies comes largely as a result of revelations [JURIST backgrounder] by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden [JURIST news archive], who allegedly leaked classified documents, including PRISM and UPSTREAM, in 2013, exposing the scope and breadth of NSA surveillance activities. Several human rights groups have taken legal action challenging the NSA. In March rights groups filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] in federal court against the NSA alleging that one of the NSA’s mass surveillance programs violates privacy rights and threatens free communication. The plaintiffs include the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Wikimedia. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled [opinion, PDF] earlier this month that the Patriot Act does not authorize [JURIST report] the NSA to collect millions of Americans’ phone records.