{"id":9476,"date":"2016-05-05T08:32:21","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T12:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=9476"},"modified":"2016-05-05T08:32:21","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T12:32:21","slug":"privacy-is-our-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=9476","title":{"rendered":"Privacy is our right"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newsday Editorial
\nThursday, May 5 2016 – newsday.co.tt<\/A><\/I><\/p>\n

PNM Senator Faris Al-Rawi<\/a>IT WAS a bright cold day in May, and the clocks were striking 13.<\/p>\n

This opening line is a paraphrase of the famous opening line of George Orwell\u2019s novel 1984. It\u2019s fitting, we feel, given what took place in the Senate on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, without citing specific legal precedent, made a chilling declaration.
\n
\n\u201cThere is no right to privacy, as some people allege exists in this jurisdiction, but which our courts do not recognise,\u201d Al-Rawi said, piloting debate on a Bill to amend the governing statute of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA). Justifying the Government\u2019s flawed decision to bring the Bill with only a simple majority, he said the courts are \u201creplete with judgments that say the right to privacy is not, per se, a right.\u201d He did not name a single case. Not even Orwell could have dreamt up this.<\/p>\n

We are of the view that all citizens in this country have a right \u2013 both legal and natural \u2013 to privacy.<\/p>\n

That right may not be absolute, but it exists.<\/p>\n

Support for our contention comes from the Constitution, the supreme law of the land. It states, at Section 4, that among our fundamental human rights and freedoms is \u201cthe right of the individual to respect for his private and family life.\u201d No amount of legal sophistry can erase this provision. As former Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide said, even if the words do not say \u201cright to privacy\u201d the meaning is clear. \u201cRespect for\u201d in no way dilutes.<\/p>\n

Further, it must be remembered the right to privacy is the natural corollary of other rights which are not in dispute. The Constitution protects \u201cthe right of the individual to life, liberty, security of the person and enjoyment of property.\u201d None of these protections make sense in a world where privacy is ceded.<\/p>\n

The law should, additionally, be understood in terms of natural law. It is inherent to our human nature that we be afforded privacy.<\/p>\n

What dignity do we have, what quality of life do we enjoy when our every move \u2013 intimate or otherwise \u2013 is subject to Big Brother? That said, the Attorney General\u2019s position may not be wholly without basis. It may be attributable to a grey area which has frequently arisen on the question of the direct effect of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Some lawyers are of the view that constitutional rights are only relevant when State entities are involved. Hence, no lawyer in Therese Ho v Lendl Simmons cited the Constitution. Instead, the lawyers worked with tort and common law. The judge in the case expressed the view that \u201cthere is dire need for the enactment of statute.\u201d Yet, the contention that the Constitution is not relevant to private matters is absurd. Why should the State have a duty not to mind our business while private citizens do not? What is more, there is law which already exists which enshrines this right. Besides the Constitution, there is international law such as the UN\u2019s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.<\/p>\n

Article 8 states, \u201cEveryone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.\u201d Even in the United Kingdom, which does not have a written constitution, a right to privacy has been found by way of the European Convention on Human Rights. Ironically, in the Senate on Tuesday, Al-Rawi said the SSA Bill was brought upon the insistence of unnamed international actors. He should listen more carefully.<\/p>\n

While the State should temper rights with the larger public interest duty to enforce national security, the Attorney General\u2019s position on the right to privacy \u2013 saying it does not even exist \u2013 is a frightening one. As Benjamin Franklin said, \u201cThey who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.\u201d Privacy, we say, is our right <\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.newsday.co.tt\/editorial\/0,227349.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newsday Editorial Thursday, May 5 2016 – newsday.co.tt IT WAS a bright cold day in May, and the clocks were striking 13. This opening line is a paraphrase of the famous opening line of George Orwell\u2019s novel 1984. It\u2019s fitting, we feel, given what took place in the Senate on Tuesday. Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, … Continue reading Privacy is our right<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,186,178,217,30,7],"tags":[393,922,359,1015,1161,49],"class_list":["post-9476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-tt","category-law","category-media","category-parliament","category-pnm","category-politics","tag-attorney-general","tag-faris-al-rawi","tag-newsday","tag-politics","tag-privacy","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9476"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9477,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9476\/revisions\/9477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}