DOCSLIB.ORG

Legal Aspects of Managing Big Data (Kemp IT Law, V.2, September 2014) Ii

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Legal Aspects of Managing Big Data (Kemp IT Law, V.2, September 2014) Ii Legal Aspects of Managing Big Data Richard Kemp September 2014 TABLE OF CONTENTS Para Heading Page Para Heading Page 22. Level 3: IP rights in relation to data (v) – likely A. INTRODUCTION ................................................... 1 direction of travel ................................................. 17 1. ‘Big Data is everywhere’........................................ 1 23. Level 4: contracting for data (i) - introduction...... 17 2. The US NIC’s December 2012 report ................... 2 25. Level 4: contracting for data (ii) – key areas for Big 3. What is ‘Big Data’? ................................................ 2 Data ..................................................................... 18 4. The policy perspective – the Commission’s July 25. Level 5: data regulation (i) - introduction............. 18 2014 Communication ............................................ 3 26. Level 5: data regulation (ii) – Data Protection ..... 18 5. Scope and aims of this white paper ...................... 4 27. Level 5: data regulation (iii) – ICO’s 28 July 2004 Report on Big Data and Data Protection............. 19 B. THE BUSINESS CONTEXT: BIG DATA IN KEY 28. Level 5: data regulation (iv) – competition law .... 21 VERTICAL SECTORS .......................................... 5 6. Introduction: pebbles and mountains .................... 5 29. Level 5: data regulation (v) – sector specific regulation ............................................................ 21 7. The banking sector ................................................ 5 30. Level 6: information management and security .. 21 8. Information architecture in the banking sector: TOGAF and BIAN ................................................. 6 31. The legal framework for Big Data – a complex picture.................................................................. 22 9. The insurance sector ............................................. 6 10. The air transport industry ...................................... 7 D. BIG DATA OPERATIONS INSIDE THE 11. The recorded music industry ................................. 7 ORGANISATION ................................................ 23 12. The healthcare sector ........................................... 8 32. Introduction ......................................................... 23 13. The public sector ................................................... 9 33. Data input operations .......................................... 23 34. Data processing operations ................................ 24 C. TOWARDS A COMMON LEGAL FRAMEWORK 35. Data output operations ........................................ 24 FOR BIG DATA .................................................. 10 36. The ‘pan-enterprise’ view .................................... 24 14. Introduction: what is data in legal terms?............ 10 15. The 6 level data stack ......................................... 11 E. MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE OF BIG 16. Level 1: platform infrastructure ........................... 11 DATA PROJECTS .............................................. 25 17. Level 2: information architecture ......................... 12 37. Introduction ......................................................... 25 18. Level 3: intellectual property rights in relation to 38. The Forrester Research IIG Report .................... 25 data (i) - introduction ........................................... 12 39. Step 1: risk assessment ...................................... 26 19. Level 3: IP rights in relation to data (ii) - 40. Step 2: strategy statement .................................. 27 copyright .............................................................. 12 41. Step 3: policy statement ...................................... 27 20. Level 3: IP rights in relation to data (iii) – database 42. Step 4: processes and procedures ..................... 28 right ..................................................................... 14 21. Level 3: IP rights in relation to data (iv) – F. CONCLUSION .................................................... 28 confidentiality and trade secrets ......................... 16 43. Conclusion .......................................................... 28 TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Towards a comprehensive legal framework for Big Data Figure 2: The Big Data engine – input, processing and output operations Figure 3: Towards a structured approach for managing Big Data projects Legal Aspects of Managing Big Data (Kemp IT Law, v.2, September 2014) ii LEGAL ASPECTS OF MANAGING BIG DATA A. INTRODUCTION 1. ‘Big Data is everywhere’. ‘If you haven’t heard’ trumpeted the Financial Times’ Lex column of 27 June 2014, ‘Big Data is everywhere’.1 Over the past twenty years, the bow wave in IT has moved on from hardware and software to the data that they process, and in an increasingly competitive and data-centric world, harnessing the tides of the Big Data ocean will confer competitive advantage in enabling a company to know more about its customers and market place than its competitors. Commenting that the business intelligence and analytics (‘BIA’) software market is worth $16bn a year and growing at 8% a year, the FT Lex column called out research from consultancy Gartner Inc.2 who showed that the BIA market is currently undergoing an ‘accelerated transformation’ from retrospective BIA software - used mainly for measurement and reporting - to prospective BIA software used for prediction, forecasting and modelling. This is fuelling a race as the BIA software majors – Oracle, SAP, IBM and SAS, whose combined BIA software turnover totals around $10bn – vie with smaller, faster growing BIA specialists like QlikTech, Splunk and Tableau to bridge the gap between the oceans of available Big Data and BIA software’s ability to harness it for competitive advantage in a structured, legally compliant way. The European Commission (Commission) in its Communication of 2 July 20143, quoting a UK report, also comments on this accelerating growth: “Big data technology and services are expected to grow worldwide to USD 16.9 billion in 2015 at a compound annual growth rate of 40% – about seven times that of the information and communications technology (ICT) market overall. A recent study predicts that in the UK alone, the number of specialist big data staff working in larger firms will increase by more than 240% over the next five years.” It is this race for competitive advantage – knowing more than your competitor not so much about what your customers have just done as about what they are likely to do next – that is at the commercial epicentre of Big Data. But it is a race that is just beginning: Gartner also points out4 that only 15% of Fortune 500 companies will be able to exploit Big Data for competitive advantage by the end of 2015 and that only 8% of companies are currently using Big Data analytics at all. 1 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/525236ca-fd4f-11e3-bc93-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk#axzz35vtpzx2A 2 http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1QHKSEP&ct=140206&st=sb 3 Towards a thriving data-driven economy (COM(2014) 442 Final) at https://ec.europa.eu/digital- agenda/en/news/communication-data-driven-economy 4 http://www.gartner.com/technology/topics/big-data.jsp Legal Aspects of Managing Big Data (Kemp IT Law, v.2, September 2014) 1 2. The US NIC’s December 2012 report. Big Data’s direction of travel is well signposted in the December 2012 long range report of the US National Intelligence Council ‘Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds’5 where it articulates a focus on data solutions and Big Data as a key IT driver over the next two decades: “Information technology is entering the Big Data era. Process power and data storage are becoming almost free; networks and the cloud will provide global access; and pervasive services; social media and cybersecurity will be large new markets.”6 Opportunities arising through Big Data are not without their challenges and issues however: “Since modern data solutions have emerged, big datasets have grown exponentially in size. At the same time, the various building blocks of knowledge discovery, as well as the software tools and best practices available to organizations that handle big datasets, have not kept pace with such growth. As a result, a large - and very rapidly growing - gap exists between the amount of data that organizations can accumulate and organizations’ abilities to leverage those data in a way that is useful. Ideally, artificial intelligence, data visualization technologies and organizational best practices will evolve to the point where data solutions ensure that people who need the information get access to the right information at the right time - and don’t become overloaded with confusing or irrelevant information.”7 It is these challenges and issues that the fast growing BIA software market is seeking to address. 3. What is ‘Big Data’? As used in this White Paper, ‘Big Data’ is shorthand for the aggregation, analysis and increasing value of vast exploitable datasets of unstructured and structured digital information. Along with Cloud8, mobile9 and social computing, it is one of the four main drivers of change in information technology as it moves into new areas whose features currently include machine learning, 3D printing, virtual reality, the Internet of Things and nanotechnology. Two recent papers, one from each side of the Atlantic, have addressed Big Data. Commenting that there was no one generally accepted definition, the White House’s Executive Office of the President (EOP) in a report dated
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Edited by ANDREW PESSIN and DORON S. BEN-ATAR
    - THE UNIVERSITY, FREE SPEECH, AND BDS Edited by ANDREW PESSIN and DORON S. BEN-ATAR INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Contents Acknowledgments xiii Introduction and Overview: The Silencing/ Andrew Pessin and Doron S. Ben-Atar 1 I. Scholars' Essays 1 BDS and Self-Righteous Moralists I Dan Avnon 43 2 Consensus, Canadian Trade Unions, and Intellectuals for Hamas/ Julien Bauer 58 3 Bullies at the Pulpit/ Doron S. Ben-Atar 66 4 A Traumatic Professorial Education: Anti-Zionism and Homophobia in a Serial Campus Hate Crime I Corinne E. Blackmer 5 Slouching toward the City That Never Stops: How a 75 Left-OrientalistAnti-Israel Faculty Tour Forced Me to Say Something (Big Mistake!)/ Gabriel Noah Brahm 83 6 On Radio Silence and the Video ThatSaved the Day: The Attack against Professor Dubnov at the University of CaliforniaSan Diego, 2012 / Shlomo Dubnov 91 7 Fraser versus the University College Union: A Personal Reflection I Ronnie Fraser 105 8 If You Are Not With Us: The National Women's Studies Association and Israel/ Janet Freedman 122 9 Rhodes University, Not a Home forAll: A Progressive Zionist's Two-Year Odyssey I Larissa Klazinga 134 10 Loud and Fast versus Slow and Quiet: Responses to Anti-Israel Activism on Campus/ JeffreyKopste in 142 X I Contents 11 A Controversy at Harvard / Martin Kramer 151 12 Attempts to Exclude Pro-Israel Views fromPro gressive Discourse: Some Case Studies fromAustralia / Philip Mendes 163 13 Anti-Israel Antisemitism in England/ Richard Millett 174 14 Conspiracy Pedagogy on Campus: BDS Advocacy, Antisemitism, and Academic
    [Show full text]
  • English Duplicates of Lost Virginia Records
    T iPlCTP \jrIRG by Lot L I B RAHY OF THL UN IVER.SITY Of ILLINOIS 975.5 D4-5"e ILL. HJST. survey Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/englishduplicateOOdesc English Duplicates of Lost Virginia Records compiled by Louis des Cognets, Jr. © 1958, Louis des Cognets, Jr. P.O. Box 163 Princeton, New Jersey This book is dedicated to my grandmother ANNA RUSSELL des COGNETS in memory of the many years she spent writing two genealogies about her Virginia ancestors \ i FOREWORD This book was compiled from material found in the Public Record Office during the summer of 1957. Original reports sent to the Colonial Office from Virginia were first microfilmed, and then transcribed for publication. Some of the penmanship of the early part of the 18th Century was like copper plate, but some was very hard to decipher, and where the same name was often spelled in two different ways on the same page, the task was all the more difficult. May the various lists of pioneer Virginians contained herein aid both genealogists, students of colonial history, and those who make a study of the evolution of names. In this event a part of my debt to other abstracters and compilers will have been paid. Thanks are due the Staff at the Public Record Office for many heavy volumes carried to my desk, and for friendly assistance. Mrs. William Dabney Duke furnished valuable advice based upon her considerable experience in Virginia research. Mrs .Olive Sheridan being acquainted with old English names was especially suited to the secretarial duties she faithfully performed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Israeli Defense Forces in the 21St Century
    SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad SIT Digital Collections Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection SIT Study Abroad Fall 2012 The sI raeli Defense Forces in the 21st Century: Humanitarian Complier or Human Rights Violators? An assessment of IHL compliance in the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead Skyler Scoggan SIT Study Abroad Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection Part of the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Inequality and Stratification Commons, International and Area Studies Commons, International Relations Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Scoggan, Skyler, "The sI raeli Defense Forces in the 21st Century: Humanitarian Complier or Human Rights Violators? An assessment of IHL compliance in the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead" (2012). Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection. 1444. https://digitalcollections.sit.edu/isp_collection/1444 This Unpublished Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the SIT Study Abroad at SIT Digital Collections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection by an authorized administrator of SIT Digital Collections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Israeli Defense Forces in the 21 st Century: Humanitarian Complier or Human Rights Violators? An assessment
    [Show full text]
  • A/HRC/47/NGO/71 General Assembly
    United Nations A/HRC/47/NGO/71 General Assembly Distr.: General 24 June 2021 English only Human Rights Council Forty-seventh session 21 June–9 July 2021 Agenda item 7 Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories Written statement* submitted by United Nations Watch, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status The Secretary-General has received the following written statement which is circulated in accordance with Economic and Social Council resolution 1996/31. [30 May 2021] * Issued as received, in the language(s) of submission only. GE.21-08567(E) A/HRC/47/NGO/71 Remedies for Protection Gap in Mandate of Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 United Nations Watch is concerned about the protection gap fostered by the mandate under Agenda Item 7. Despite the geographic and situational mandate denoted by the title of the position—Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967—the text of the mandate charges the Rapporteur only with investigating “Israel’s violations.”1 No other country mandate focuses on just one side to a conflict. Amnesty International has stated that the mandate’s “limitation to Israeli violations undercuts both the effectiveness and the credibility of the mandate.”2 Amnesty noted that it “fails to take account of the human rights of victims of violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed by parties other than the State of Israel.”3 Unfortunately, the practical effects of this protection gap are that Palestinian and Israeli victims of human rights violations committed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), Hamas, or any other Palestinian actor are largely ignored by the Special Rapporteur.
    [Show full text]
  • The End of Israel's Impunity?
    36 | VARIANT 34 | SPRING 2009 The End of Israel’s Impunity? Muhammad Idrees Ahmad The assault on Gaza marks the end of an era for William Douglas of the US Supreme Court accused rate is 49.1%, where the majority relies on food Israel. For the second time in two years its colonial the allies of “substituting power for principle” aid (from the World Food Program and the UN ambition has floundered in the face of determined and creating laws “ex post facto to suit the passion Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the latter resistance. It may persist for some time; but the and clamour of the time”. In his famous dissent alone feeding about 750,000 Gazans), and 50% trajectory is clear – it is losing both legitimacy and at the Tokyo trials, Indian Justice Radhabinod Pal of whose population comprises children – the power. Support for it is dwindling in Washington; indicted the tribunal for its exclusion of European consequences were devastating. Roy reports that its friends are alarmed. Citizens are acting where colonialism and the American use of the atomic according to Oxfam, an average of 4.6 trucks per governments have failed; the movement for bomb. The trial, he argued, was nothing more day entered Gaza in November 2008 as compared boycott, divestment and sanctions is snowballing. than an “opportunity for the victors to retaliate”. to 564 trucks a day in December 2005. There Apologists are finding it more difficult to justify Antiwar US senator Robert Taft called it “victors’ were three days where 20,000 went without food its persistent criminality.
    [Show full text]
  • Crimes Committed by Terrorist Groups: Theory, Research and Prevention
    The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Crimes Committed by Terrorist Groups: Theory, Research and Prevention Author(s): Mark S. Hamm Document No.: 211203 Date Received: September 2005 Award Number: 2003-DT-CX-0002 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Crimes Committed by Terrorist Groups: Theory, Research, and Prevention Award #2003 DT CX 0002 Mark S. Hamm Criminology Department Indiana State University Terre Haute, IN 47809 Final Final Report Submitted: June 1, 2005 This project was supported by Grant No. 2003-DT-CX-0002 awarded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................. iv Executive Summary....................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Kick Terror out of Football
    Kick Terror out of Football Complaint by Palestinian Media Watch and NGO Monitor1 to the FIFA Disciplinary Committee against: 1. The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) 2. PFA President Jibril Rajoub For violating the FIFA Statutes and Disciplinary Code by: 1. Supporting and glorifying terrorism; 2. Inciting hatred and violence; 3. Promoting racism; 4. Prohibiting the use of football as a bridge for peace Preamble: The Palestinian Football Association [hereinafter: "PFA"] and its president Mr. Jibril Rajoub regularly violate FIFA’s Statutes and Disciplinary Code by using Palestinian football as a vehicle to glorify and honor terrorist murderers; inciting hatred and violence; promoting racism; and prohibiting the use of sports as a bridge for peace between Palestinians and Israelis. The above actions are in direct contravention of Articles 3 and 4 of the FIFA Statutes and Articles 53 and 58 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code. 1 NGO Monitor is a Jerusalem-based research institute. NGO Monitor documents and publicizes distortions of human rights and international law in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as well as double standards and biased campaigns, and provide information and context on these issues and activities, in order to encourage informed public debate. Members of NGO Monitor’s Advisory Board are Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz; Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; Hon. Alexander Downer AC, former Foreign Minister of Australia, UN Special Advisor to the Secretary General on Cyprus, and currently Australian High Commissioner to the UK; Hon. Michael Danby MP, senior member of the Australian Labor Party; R.
    [Show full text]
  • The Principle of Proportionality Under International Humanitarian Law and Operation Cast
    The Principle of Proportionality under International Humanitarian Law and Operation Cast Lead Robert P. Barnidge, Jr. Introduction International law straddles an ever-changing world of theory and practice, and it always has. It has before it the heady task of remaining relevant in the face of both widespread compliance and widespread violation, and in doing so, it must adapt to present predicaments while retaining an integrity that can command compliance. It is one of international law’s great paradoxes, furthermore, that even as it insists that it is “above” politics, it is quintessentially “of” politics. It is, after all, the by-product of the complex machinations of states and other actors jockeying for advantage in a crowded landscape of Copyrightdisparate interests and© limited2010 resources. Columbia University Press International humanitarian law, a set of rules and standards that seeks to legally determine who “matters” and who “does not,” and how, in situations of armed conflict, necessarily operates within this reality. As President of the Supreme Court of Israel Aharon Barak put it in the 2002 Ajuri v. IDF Commander case, “‘[e]ven when the cannons speak and the Muses are silent, law exists and operates, determining what is permitted and what forbidden, what is lawful and what unlawful.’”1 The law in this context fundamentally roots itself in a commitment to distinction, and from this principle springs the balance of international humanitarian law, including the principle of proportionality. Indeed, without this commitment to
    [Show full text]
  • History of Israeli War Crimes: “Surgical Strikes” Against Palestinian Children
    History of Israeli War Crimes: “Surgical Strikes” against Palestinian Children The “International Community” Also Lies Buried By Felicity Arbuthnot Region: Middle East & North Africa Global Research, September 29, 2018 Theme: Crimes against Humanity Global Research 24 November 2012 In-depth Report: PALESTINE It was ten years ago: This article first published in November 2012 recalls the massacre of Palestinian children during the December 2008-January 2009 invasion of Gaza “Light the fire so I can see my tears,On the night of the massacre ”… (Samih al- Qasim, b: 1939.) It was that “pinpoint accuracy”, “surgical strike” stuff again, there were “unavoidable tragic errors”, “mistakes”, “scrupulous efforts made to avoid” etc., blah. And as Britain’s Colonel Richard Kemp declared of the fourteen hundred dead of the Christmas and New year onslaught on Gaza in 2008-2009: “Mistakes are not war crimes.” (i) Colonel Kemp, with impeccable ties to British Intelligence Services, spoke to the BBC from Jerusalem in similar sanguine vein on 21st November(ii) of the then latest twenty four hour bombardment of the tiny, walled in Gaza Strip, where over half the population are children. But Colonel Kemp has seen a fair amount of carnage in his time, from Belfast to the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Seemingly after a while the dead and dismembered are just part of the day job. The eight day blitz killed one hundred and sixty two Palestinians in what were merciless attacks on families with no where to hide. Nine hundred and ninety nine were injured. Eight hundred and sixty five houses are damaged or destroyed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Threat Posed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
    Defence Committee Enquiry on The situation in Iraq and Syria and the threat posed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) Written evidence submitted by Honorary Professor Paul Schulte, Professor Stefan Wolff and Dr Christopher M Wyatt, Institute for Conflict, Cooperation and Security (ICCS), University of Birmingham Preface 1. This submission will address the following aspects in response to the Committee’s questions: Counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation policy, including the ideological threat; The role of Air Power in operations, especially remote piloted aircraft (RPA) and their systems; and The need to consider ongoing operations and policy in the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) and the associated National Security Strategy (NSS). The Committee is taking evidence to address several questions and our responses to these are below. 1) What are the threats represented by ISIL, other militant groups and the Assad regime, politically, ideologically and militarily in Iraq and Syria? How might they evolve? 2. The threat from ISIL and other Islamist militant groups in the region has changed from that previously encountered from Al-Qaida. Up until now, Al-Qaida has represented a terrorist threat to the UK and other Western countries. This has taken the form of mass-casualty terrorism, such as seen in Kenya, Tanzania and 9/11.1 Since the intervention in Afghanistan, the threat from that group and its affiliate Ansar al-Sharia has been reduced, though in has resurfaced to greatest effect in Yemen.2 The change has been the control by militants of large swathes of territory and the enforcement of a radical form of Islam3, not normally recognised in the traditional Sunni canon.4 3.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 January 7, 2019 NGO Monitor Submission to the United Nations
    10 Yad Harutzim St. Jerusalem, Israel 9342148 Phone: +972-2-566-1020 Fax: +972-77-511-7030 [email protected] www.ngo-monitor.org January 7, 2019 NGO Monitor Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on the “Effects of Terrorism on the Enjoyment of all Human Rights,” the “negative impact of the non-repatriation of funds of illicit origin to the countries of origin on the enjoyment of human rights,” and the “role of technical assistance and capacity-building in fostering mutually beneficial cooperation in promoting and protecting human rights” Introduction NGO Monitor, a project of the Institute for NGO Research,1 an organization in Special Consultative Status with UN ECOSOC since 2013, presents this submission to the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee on the “Effects of Terrorism on the Enjoyment of all Human Rights, ” the “negative impact of the non-repatriation of funds of illicit origin to the countries of origin on the enjoyment of human rights,” and the “role of technical assistance and capacity-building in fostering mutually beneficial cooperation in promoting and protecting human rights.” In 2006, the United Nations by consensus adopted a Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy in order to “enhance national, regional and international efforts to counter terrorism” and to “send a clear message that terrorism is unacceptable in all its forms.” The UN further states that “acts, methods and practices of terrorism in all its forms and manifestations are activities aimed at the destruction
    [Show full text]
  • 1 January 30, 2012 NGO Monitor's Submission to the Committee For
    January 30, 2012 NGO Monitor’s Submission to the Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in Advance of the Periodic Review of Israel (80 th Session) NGO Monitor is a Jerusalem-based research institution that tracks the activities, campaigns, and funding of NGOs operating in the Arab-Israeli conflict. For more than eight years, NGO Monitor has conducted numerous detailed and systematic research studies on the issues of NGO transparency and accountability, international law, human rights, humanitarian aid, and the laws of armed conflict. 1 NGO Monitor has prepared this submission in advance of the periodic review of Israel at the 80 th Session of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Introduction Israel is a vibrant parliamentary democracy facing many complex challenges, such as balancing the rights of its population (including its Arab minority) with the need to protect against frequent attacks on its civilians launched from Hamas-controlled Gaza, the West Bank, and Hezbollah-controlled Southern Lebanon. The civil society (NGO) network in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza is thriving and often provides valuable humanitarian assistance, including health services, education, and other basic requirements under many difficult and complex conditions. Unfortunately, however, some segments of this network also often play a counterproductive role in the Arab- Israeli conflict. Many NGOs undermine good-faith measures to make Israeli society more inclusive, and instead promote destructive bias and ideological agendas. As a result, NGO statements 1 Members of NGO Monitor’s Advisory Board include Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel; Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz; Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; R.
    [Show full text]