The government of Lesotho this week came under mounting fire following the gazetting of regulations giving it powers to access and monitor our mobile phone communications.
The law, for all practical purposes, is a direct attack on people’s civil liberties. These are guarantees and freedoms that liberal governments commit not to abridge, either by legislation or judicial interpretation, without due process.
Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may include the freedom of conscience, freedom of press, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, the right to security and liberty, freedom of speech, the right to privacy, the right to equal treatment under the law and due process, the right to a fair trial, and the right to life.
Other civil liberties include the right to own property, the right to defend oneself, and the right to bodily integrity. Within the distinctions between civil liberties and other types of liberty, distinctions exist between positive liberty/positive rights and negative liberty/negative rights.
Civil liberties, basically, are protections against government actions. Government, then, cannot interfere in an individual’s freedom of worship.
By undermining people’s civil liberties, we too believe the regulations have the potential to be unconstitutional. There are fears, justifiable, that the regulations are likely to be abused by government to spy on rivals and harass them.
Already, the US Embassy has expressed concern over the regulations, arguing they are likely to downgrade Lesotho on democracy and people’s freedoms global ratings as people will no longer be free to communicate without fear of being spied on.
We, too, would like to join in the growing condemnation of these regulations.
