Edinburgh Live – Edinburgh City Council commits to removing human rights abusing CCTV cameras

Edinburgh council is one of the twelve local authorities in Scotland to be utilising CCTV technology supplied by Chinese state-owned surveillance company, Hikvision.

The council recently learned that Hikvision is committing heinous crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, China, by monitoring hundreds of Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps.

This move to remove these intrusive, human rights abusing cameras from “the public realm” in Edinburgh is in response to the issue raised by Councillor Lewis Younie at Thursday’s (27 October) meeting when he requested for removal of all Hikvision cameras.

Big Brother Watch, a privacy and civil liberties organisation campaigning against the sale of these cameras in the UK said, “these companies have thousands of cameras in schools, hospitals and on high streets across the UK. They are violating human rights abroad and must be banned in the UK.”

The council is unsure about the number of Hikvision cameras operating in Edinburgh and a survey is being carried out to uncover the exact number.

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