DIGITAL SURVEILLANCE, PRIVACY RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

The proliferation of digital surveillance technologies in the twenty-first century has generated profound tensions with the international human right to privacy. This article employs doctrinal legal methodology to examine the normative framework governing digital surveillance under international human rights law, with particular attention to Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human Rights, and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The article analyses the definitional scope of the right to privacy in digital environments; maps State obligations regarding legality, necessity, and proportionality of surveillance measures; interrogates the extraterritorial dimensions of digital surveillance; evaluates the intersection of surveillance with other fundamental rights including freedom of expression and non-discrimination; and critically assesses the challenges posed by mass surveillance programmes, commercial data exploitation, and artificial intelligence-enabled surveillance. The article concludes that the existing framework of international human rights law, while providing a sufficient normative foundation, requires significant institutional reinforcement, modernization of treaty interpretation, and genuine political commitment from States to curb the excesses of the surveillance state and its commercial analogues.