Global Legal Monitor (GLM)
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Argentina: Children - Bill Penalizes "Grooming" of Minors on the Internet
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(Feb. 07, 2012) On November 2, 2011, the Senate of Argentina approved and sent to the Cámara de Diputados (Chamber of Deputies) for further debate a bill that penalizes contact with minors through the Internet for sexual purposes, also known as "grooming" of children through the Internet. (Gustavo Ybarra, El Senado Tipificó como Delito el Grooming, LA NACIóN (Nov. 3, 2011), ) & Bill No. 4767-D-2010, Chamber of Deputies website (official site, last visited Feb. 8, 2012).)
The bill amends the Criminal Code to punish, with a term of imprisonment of from six months to four years, those who approach children and adolescents for the purpose of corruption, after having contacted them through the Internet or via any other form of information technology. (Ybarra, supra.) Thus, simple contact with the child by any electronic means with the clear intent of "grooming" will be the crime; it is the preparation for an act of abuse of a child that will be penalized. In addition, if an actual meeting or physical contact with a minor is arranged, the punishment will be increased by two to four years. (Id.)
Senator Sonia Escudero, President of the Senate Commission of Justice and Criminal Matters, stated that the purpose of the amendment is to punish the behavior before the actual sexual crime is perpetrated; the criminal behavior under the bill is to attract and enthrall the child for sexual purposes. (Ybarra, supra.) As a member of the Argentine Association of Legal Information Technology (Asociación Argentina de Informática Juridica) stated, the "grooming" is a preliminary crime that prepares the victim to be subjected to a more serious crime. (Senado Aprobó la Penalización de la Captación de Menores en la Red con Fines Sexuales, EL INTRANSIGENTE (Nov. 2, 2011).)
Final passage of the bill is expected in the Cámara de Diputados during the 2012 legislative session. (Fernando Tomeo, Las Cinco Leyes que Eespera la Comunidad Informática Argentina en 2012, LA NACIÓN (Jan. 6, 2012).)
- Author: Graciela Rodriguez-Ferrand
- Topic: Children
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Greece: Courts - Draft Bill on Fair and Speedy Trials
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(Feb. 07, 2012) On January 30, 2012, the Greek Ministry of Justice, Transparency, and Human Rights submitted to Parliament a bill designed to expedite the administration of justice and guarantee speedier and fairer trials for individuals. (Draft Bill on Fair and Speedy Trial [in Greek], Hellenic Parliament website (last visited Feb. 8, 2012).)
The impetus behind the proposed bill is Greece's abysmal record on delayed administration of justice, resulting in denial of justice and due process rights. Greece ranks fourth among the 47 members of the Council of Europe for violations of the right to speedy administration of justice. Specifically, the European Court of Human Rights has found against Greece in 360 cases for unjustified delays in trials. In one case, a court decision was issued after 27 years. Greece has paid approximately €8.5 million for compensation and moral satisfaction arising from cases of denial of justice. (Id.)
Some highlights of the proposed bill include the following:
· Divorce proceedings and marriage disputes will be under the competence of single-member district courts, rather than multi-member courts;
· Judicial mediation will be introduced as a method of settling private disputes, without resorting to courts. Senior judges will exercise mediation duties;
· There will be electronic submission of all court documents. An implementing decree will provide more details;
· Decisions will be prepared in electronic form, then printed in hard copy, signed, and published;
· Labor disputes and disputes related to spouse support, child care, and visitation rights will be decided within 60 days;
· Foreign decisions will be enforced by a simple order of the judge and not a court decision. This will expedite enforcement of foreign judgments by 18 months;
· Establishment of single-member criminal courts, especially for felonies, composed of a senior judge; to date felonies have been tried by multi-member ordinary criminal courts. The single-member courts' subject matter jurisdiction will include offenses related to guns, taxation, customs, narcotics, forest arson, armed robbery, and other crimes. (Id.)
- Author: Theresa Papademetriou
- Topic: Courts
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- Jurisdiction: Greece
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Germany: Police - Right-Wing Extremist Database Proposed
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(Feb. 07, 2012) On January 18, 2012, the Federal Cabinet submitted a draft law to the German Parliament that proposes the creation of a database on right-wing extremists (Gesetzesentwurf der Bundesregierung, Rechtsextremismus-Datei-Gesetz, Bundesrat Drucksache 31/12 (Jan. 20, 2012), German Parliament website). The Federal Ministry of the Interior had drafted this legislation in response to the discovery in November 2011 that a neo-Nazi organization had committed numerous politically motivated murders and other crimes since the year 2000 and that these crimes had remained unsolved (Die schlimmste Mordserie der nuller Jahre aufgeklärt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 8 (Nov. 12, 2011)). The group was quite small, consisting of possibly only four members. Some of these people had at times been under observation by German intelligence agencies. In 2003, however, the group had disappeared, and it was not under any surveillance in 2011, at the time its crimes became known (id.)
The gap in crime prevention that these events revealed caused an outcry throughout Germany, and on November 22, 2011, the Federal Diet, the representative chamber of the federal bicameral legislature, discussed these events and how to remedy this state of affairs (Deutscher Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll17/141 [Plenary Proceedings 17/141] (Nov. 22, 2011)[cut and paste Plenarprotokoll 17/141 in Google if hyperlink inoperable]). It is expected that the Federal Diet will soon begin the legislative process on the submitted draft legislation, which its authors have classified as urgent. The proposed database would be shared by the domestic intelligence agencies of the German states and the Federation and by state and federal police agencies. These agencies would contribute relevant data and be permitted to access the database for their law enforcement and intelligence-gathering purposes.
The pending draft legislation is modeled after the Anti-Terror Database Act of 2006 (Antiterrordateigesetz (Dec. 12, 2006), Bundesgesetzblatt I at 3409, as amended) which, for the first time since 1947, allowed regular information sharing between intelligence and law enforcement agencies in Germany. In 1947, the Western Allied Powers of Germany had insisted that the German authorities separate intelligence-gathering from police activities, to protect civil liberties. (Felix Ruhmannseder, Informationelle Zusammenarbeit von Polizeibehörden und Nachrichtendiensten, STRAFVERTEIDIGER FORUM 184 (2007)). By 2006, however, it had become apparent that cooperation between the numerous German intelligence and law enforcement agencies is necessary to combat terrorism (id.) Recent events have convinced the German public that such cooperation is needed to monitor the right-wing extremist scene (Innenminister Stephan Toscani: Wichtiges Signal für Schutz und Sicherheitder Menschen vor Extremismus und Terrorismus, SAARLAND (Jan. 18, 2012)).
- Author: Edith Palmer
- Topic: Police
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- Jurisdiction: Germany
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China: Freedom of the press - Tightened Controls on Microblogging, Including Real Name Requirement
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(Feb. 07, 2012) On February 7, 2012, it was reported that China's four major microblogging (weibo) websites -- Sina.com, Sohu, NetEase, and Tencent -- will institute a real-name identification system on March 16, 2012. Current users who have not yet carried out identity registration and real name authentication after that date will only be able to browse the sites and not text or transmit messages. The microblog services will adopt the "foreground voluntary, background real name" approach, whereby old and new users alike must go through real name authentication, but they may choose whether or not to make public their real names on open webpages. (Total Real Name System for Microblogs, Mainland Internet Users Dissatisfied [in Chinese], EPOCH TIMES (Feb. 7, 2012).) Also on February 7, mobile phone users received a text message notifying them of the launch of the real ID authentication service and requesting that they register at weibo.10086.cn before March 16.
Late last year and earlier in 2012 the authorities were already taking steps to tighten control over the "relatively freewheeling microblogging world" in a few major cities. (Keith B. Richburg, Another Writer Sentenced as China's Crackdown Continues, THE WASHINGTON POST (Jan.19, 2012).) Thus, municipal provisions issued by Beijing require those who sign up for a microblog account "to register with their real names and identity card numbers, making it easier to trace them if they post something the government doesn't like." (Richburg, supra.; see also Keith B. Richburg, China Moves to Rein in Microblogs, THE WASHINGTON POST (Oct. 4, 2011); Andrew Jacobs, Well-Oiled Security Apparatus in China Stifles Calls for Change, THE NEW YORK TIMES (Feb. 28, 2011).)
These rules, Certain Provisions of Beijing Municipality on the Development and Management of Microblogging (adopted on December 16, 2011) are aimed at the city's microblogging services and their users. (Beijing shi weiboke fazhan guanli ruogan guiding (quan wen) [Chinese text of the Provisions], art. 2, PEOPLE.COM.CN (Dec. 16, 2012).) The city will formulate microblogging services development plans and stipulate the total number, structure, and disposition of microblog services' websites that are launched (id. art. 5). Before applying for a telecommunications business operating license or going through the filing procedure for a non-business Internet information service, a microblogging service that a website launches within the city's administrative districts is to submit an application to the department in charge of the city's Internet information content and go through an examination and approval process (id. art. 6). Article 9 of the Provisions is on the real name system:
Any organization or individual who registers for a microblogging account, and makes, duplicates, or propagates information content, should use real identification information, and cannot register by using false or fraudulent citizens' identification information, corporate registration information, or organizations' institutional code information to carry out registration.
In launching microblogging services, websites should guarantee the veracity of registered users' information stipulated in the previous paragraph. (Id.)
The Provisions also prohibit organizations or individuals from unlawfully using microblogs to make, duplicate, issue, or propagate information that contains content that:
1) violates basic principles recognized in the Constitution;
2) endangers state security, leaks state secrets, subverts the state's political power, or damages the unity of the state;
3) harms the state's reputation and interests;
4) incites ethnic group hatred or discrimination, or damages ethnic group cooperation;
5) damages the state religious policies or publicizes cults and feudal superstitions;
6) spreads rumors, disrupts social order, or damages social stability;
7) spreads obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, or terrorism, or abets the commission of crimes;
8) humiliates or slanders other people, infringing on others' lawful rights;
9) incites illegal assembly, association, parade, demonstration, or gatherings that disrupt(s) social order;
10) is about activities in the name of illegal nongovernment organizations; or
11) contains other content prohibited by law or administrative regulations. (Id. art. 10; see also, e.g., Electronic Message Board Terms of Agreement [in Chinese], BAIDU (last visited Feb. 8, 2012) [contains similar list of prohibited content].)
Over the last year in particular, the courts have meted out harsh sentences to human rights activists who have been active in making their views known online. The courts' actions are viewed by some observers as a troublesome sign of an intensifying crackdown on dissidents by the government in advance of the one-year anniversary in February of the anonymous online calls for "Jasmine Revolution" rallies in China. The crackdown is also taking place before the delicate Chinese Communist Party leadership transition due to occur in 2012. (Sui-Lee Wee, China Hands 10 Years to Writer for Subversion, REUTERS (Jan. 19, 2012).)
The 2011 online calls for protests in various Chinese cities to oppose Chinese Communist Party rule, reportedly posted by a website in the United States, were promptly met with a crackdown by police. In "the wave of detentions and disappearances" the police "pre-emptively swept up many of the nation's best-known rights lawyers but also low-profile activists who simply forwarded the protest calls on their microblogs"; nearly two dozen persons were detained and 11 others were said to have disappeared into police custody. (Andrew Jacobs, Chinese Democracy Activist Is Given 10-Year Sentence, THE NEW YORK TIMES (Mar. 25, 2011).)
- Author: Wendy Zeldin
- Topic: Freedom of the press
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- Jurisdiction: China
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European Union: Intellectual property - ACTA Signed in Tokyo
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On January 26, 2012, the European Union and 22 of its member countries signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a controversial pact designed to tighten international controls on violations of copyright and other intellectual property laws. A signing ceremony was held in Tokyo, hosted by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Signing Ceremony of the EU for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) (Outline), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan website (Jan. 26, 2012).) The EU will debate ratification of the agreement in June; it is up to the EU to determine whether member nations can enforce ACTA's provisions. (Peter Stanners, Denmark Signs Contentious Anti-Piracy Agreement, THE COPENHAGEN POST (Jan. 27, 2012).)
The agreement was initially signed on October 1, 2011, in Tokyo, by eight nations: Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States. The U.S. government described the pact as a:
groundbreaking initiative by key trading partners to strengthen the international legal framework for effectively combating global proliferation of commercial-scale counterfeiting and piracy. In addition to calling for strong legal frameworks, the agreement also includes innovative provisions to deepen international cooperation and to promote strong intellectual property rights (IPR) enforcement practices. (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, Office of the United States Trade Representative website (Oct. 1, 2011) [includes link to text of ACTA]; for background see also Wendy Zeldin, Draft Counterfeiting Pact in Final Stages of Completion, GLOBAL LEGAL MONITOR (Nov. 18, 2010).)
ACTA has been criticized as potentially censoring Internet content; such concerns have led to large public demonstrations, including those in two Polish cities after that country signed the document. Concern over the impact of ACTA on Internet users has focused on provisions requiring Internet service providers to monitor user activity and cut off those users suspected of posting material in violation of copyright protections. (Stanners, supra.) The organization Avaaz, which describes itself as a "global web movement to bring people-powered politics to decision-making everywhere," has called ACTA a threat to Internet freedom and has begun an online petition against the treaty. (Id.; ACTA: The New Threat to the Net, Avaaz website (Jan. 29, 2012).)
- Author: Constance Johnson
- Topic: Intellectual property
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- Jurisdiction: European Union
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