The PANAFRICAN Review
Pegasus , Amnesty International and the Preservation of the World Order
Lionel Manzi
On 19 July 2021 , Amnesty International made allegations that different countries were conducting surveillance operations using the Pegasus software . Amnesty ’ s Secretary General , Agnes Callamard , urged the Israeli firm , NSO Group , to “ stop selling its equipment to countries with a track record of putting human right defenders and journalists under unlawful surveillance .” On the surface , Amnesty is doing what it says it stands for : defending human rights . Upon close scrutiny , however , all it is doing is reinforcing a dichotomy between those allowed to use and those prohibited from using surveillance technologies , which suggests that Amnesty is more preoccupied with preserving a “ world order ” built on an outdated assumption of the west ’ s moral superiority over other peoples of the world .
The double standards of Amnesty ’ s advocacy
It is quite remarkable , to say the least , that while the majority of the 47 countries which the NSO Group acknowledges as its clients are European countries , only Hungaria appeared among the countries Amnesty International identified as “ potential ” users of Pegasus . No other European nation is mentioned , as if their surveillance activities are presumed to be lawful . Agnes Callamard ’ s statement suggests that these western nations , which happen to be clients of the NSO Group , belong to a select club , whose morality is supposedly self-evident and doesn ’ t need proving . These
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