PDC: Foreign policy working group

This Working Group (WG) was established by the Policy Development Committee (PDC) on 29 May 2013.

Working group report
This working group was tasked with developing a more transparent and independent treaty making and foreign policy. This policy is in the development stage, so if you want to contribute email policydev@pirateparty.org.au.

Recommendation
That the following measures be adopted to underpin transparency and human rights in foreign policy.

Preamble
Civil and digital liberties, transparency, and human rights are universal principles and should be embodied in foreign as well as domestic policy. Indeed, foreign and domestic spheres are often difficult to separate, with international treaties having potential to drive domestic lawmaking.

Legitimacy for such laws derives from proper consultation. However this bar is not always met: treaties such ACTA (which affect surveillance, generic medicine, and digital rights), have been negotiated in high secrecy. While the secrecy itself was nullified by regular leaks, the process was still seen to exclude many potentially affected parties. Far more legitimacy and balance will attach to treaty outputs when openness and participation are enshrined in the negotiation process. We also believe treaties should not be signed when they unduly restrict sovereign decisions. Accordingly, we reject the inclusion of instruments such as investor-state dispute settlement processes, which allow foreign investors to compel or sue the Commonwealth of Australia by citing laws applying in foreign jurisdictions.

Recent revelations of massive and warrantless monitoring by the US National Security Agency emphatically demand a firmer response from the Australian government. Australians are being subjected to offshore monitoring on a massive scale with no checks and balances and no means for providing accountability. The notion that allies can be treated as suspects with no entitlement to any rights is harmful both to domestic sovereignty and broader international relations.

One method of safeguarding domestic digital liberties will be to ensure that foreign whistle blowers offering information relevant to the public good are granted protection under Australian whistle blower laws. We also believe attempts should begin on the negotiation of a new treaty which enshrines the principles of the internet and protects the rights of its users.

Australia should also continue to support human rights overseas, with the first step being to meet agreed aid targets. Plans to redirect foreign aid to handle domestic boat arrivals set a bad precedent and should be reversed. Properly targeted aid may well do more to reduce such arrivals in the long-run by curbing poverty and environmental damage overseas.

Policy text
Support principles of transparency and openness in treaties and trade agreements.


 * Ensure negotiation in treaties is subject to oversight and public participation.
 * Require transparent negotiations, draft texts made available prior to signing, and a window for public participation.
 * Conduct a constitutional referendum to require parliamentary oversight and consent in treaty making and other international instruments.
 * Renegotiate or withdraw from treaties which restrict policy making in areas of intellectual property reform and public health.
 * Treaties to be reviewed will include:
 * Berne Convention
 * WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT)
 * Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA)
 * Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
 * Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA)
 * Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
 * Convention on Psychotropic Substances
 * Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
 * Review treaties to which Australia has been granted an exception from certain articles which reduce the rights afforded to individuals and remove such exceptions as are deemed necessary to aid the rights of individuals. To enable the enforcement of such treaties where they are not currently enforced.
 * Treaties to be reviewed for removing exceptions or to be enforced in Australian law include:
 * International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
 * No inclusion of investor-state dispute settlement provisions in trade agreements.
 * Foreign businesses investing in Australia to retain equivalent legal protections to domestic businesses.
 * Begin negotiations on an international treaty for a free and open internet.
 * Treaty should enshrine net neutrality, freedom from state control, and protection for private communication, free expression, and unrestricted access to information.

Expand use of diplomacy and aid in support of global human rights.
 * Increase foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of GDP by 2014-15 to meet the agreed deadline for Millennium Development Goals.
 * Priorities for additional aid to include programs to support empowerment of women, environmental protection, regional capacity building (including renewable energy), emergency response, and provision of generic medicines (see patents policy).
 * Support political asylum or subsidiary protection status for overseas whistleblowers per provisions of Article 14 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
 * Suspend extradition processes and law enforcement cooperation in cases where:
 * Only political offences have been committed.
 * The act being investigated is not an offence in Australia.
 * A death penalty could potentially apply.
 * The nation involved is a non-signatory of the United Nations Convention against Torture.
 * Utilise diplomatic and political channels to seek urgent clarification from nations that Australia has intelligence sharing arrangements with regarding the scope of monitoring of Australian citizens by intelligence agencies.