Samþykkt: Endorsement of Edward Snowden for the Nobel Peace Prize

Dear nomination committee of the Nobel Peace Prize,

We wish to nominate an outstanding candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize 2014. It is our firm belief that Edward Snowden, US citizen, has shown all the qualifications required to be a worthy laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Edward Snowden has, with great risk to his personal well-being and future, revealed the horrific scope of the global espionage network of the Anglo-American spy agencies. By releasing the documents regarding the activites of these clandestine agencies he has not only unveiled the global scale of mass surveillance which endanger a wide array of civil liberties such as free speech and the right to privacy, but has also given the people of the world the necessary tools to counter the ever-increasing path of mass surveillance.

The debate on mass surveillance cannot take place
without the disclosure of the basic structures and methods of the
corresponding secret spy programs. Citizens, researchers and politicians
need insight into these programs to be able to weigh the social consequences and the resulting damage for society.

By leaking the documents to investigative journalists from independent media, Snowden has managed to carefully consider the balance between public interest and national security. By revising the source documents,
he and his supporters avoided leaking highly sensitive information that
might have put running operations und the people involved into danger.

Some might argue that Snowden acted against the law. We respond that in the case of the data retention carried out by Verizon and the collection of cloud data by the NSA spy program PRISM, there was no democratic control by a transparent parlamentary process. Secret surveillance is illegitimate as it questions the sovereignity of the people over the state apparatus.