14 DAY TRIAL // It has just been revealed that the NSA spied on the United Nations members during a climate summit hosted by Denmark in 2009, and legal experts have already come forth, saying that this is illegal.
According to Information, who quotes legal experts, if the NSA’s activities are confirmed, the agency was in violation of Danish laws and international conventions.
“Basically, breaking into other people’s computers or networks is a clear criminal offense in Denmark. This applies to casual hackers as well as to a foreign intelligence service like the NSA,” said Jørn Vestergaard, criminal law professor at the University of Copenhagen.
Furthermore, if a foreign intelligence service intercepted information that must be kept secret to protect the interest of the Danish government or public, it would still be a violation of the espionage sections of the law.
Even worse, espionage against the United Nations is illegal under the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. This has been stated several times again, every time a report revealed that the NSA was spying on the United Nations, whether it was a summit or the organization’s headquarters.
The situation would change a bit if the Danish government had given the NSA explicit permission to operate legally on its soil.
“But that would allow PET (The Danish Security and Intelligence Service) to lawfully carry out the same operations, and then you have a whole set of rules that apply, primarily the code of civil procedure. And it's hard to imagine that PET would be allowed to spy at COP15, which really does not have much to do with national security,” Vestergaard said.
The purpose of the entire operation that was uncovered thanks to a new set of documents from Edward Snowden was to provide intelligence to US lawmakers so that they could adjust their speeches and policies in accordance with the other nations attending the summit.