In the wake of the NSA, BND [German secret service] and Luxembourg secret service revelations it may sound strange to reaffirm the right to privacy as a human right. Yet it is my opinion that today it is even more important than ever to remind us, and our leaders, of the value of human rights in general; and the right to privacy in particular.

It is often forgotten that human rights are not a recent invention. Most of their sources can be traced back many centuries. The best-known declaration of human rights is certainly the 1789 “Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen” from revolutionary France.

But the “Bill of Rights” from the United States is also a well-known statement of basic principles that should govern every human’s rights. Both have not only in common that they were written around the same time, but also that the signatories saw a right to privacy as a “condition sine qua non”, to guarantee political and religious freedom. They argued that only if free men could communicate and write without the fear of having their mail read by a third person, would they be truly free.

In 1789 governments where unlikely to be able to read the mail of their citizens, yet great thinkers formulated a right to privacy in communications. Today, where the advancement of IT has made mass surveillance like that conducted by the NSA possible, this hurdle has fallen. Thus it becomes more important than ever to insist on our human rights.

Because, if the argument for introducing more surveillance is terrorism, then we already have lost. If we act against our core beliefs--which human rights are--in order to gain a bit more apparent security, then the terrorists have won. They want to destroy our culture and spread fear. Everybody calling for less privacy is therefore simply playing into their hands.

I will not indulge you--dear readers--with an exposé of how our right to privacy is constantly being violated. Instead I want to propose some necessary reforms that would once again guarantee this basic human right.

First of all, we need to accept that the right to private communications should not only apply to printed letters sent via snail mail, but to all our communications. Whether they are spoken, physical or digital. Regardless of whether we share pictures, videos or sound. The basic right to privacy should apply to all forms of communications.

To do this in Luxembourg, we would need to add a right to informational auto-determination to the constitution, while at the same time updating article 11 to reflect a broader view of privacy.

Secondly, to protect the constitutional rights that we should be implementing, we need a supreme court that can be called upon by all citizens whenever they believe their rights have been infringed upon. Only allowing ordinary citizens to sue for the respect of their rights will cement the latter. Otherwise they will erode quicker than quicksand in a tropical storm.

Thirdly, we need to have a serious discussion about the goals and methods of secret services; be it the SREL [Luxembourg secret service] or the NSA, we need to have that talk. This means creating an independent supervisory body to watch the watchers and strong sanctions for non-compliance.

Sven Clement is president of the Piratepartie Luxembourg.