In response to reports of widespread surveillance of human rights defenders and members of Congress by Colombian intelligence agencies for the express purpose of disrupting and discrediting their activities, the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights was asked to provide a summary of international right to privacy standards concerning the lawfulness of such surveillance activities. The following memorandum outlines relevant standards in the international and Inter-American systems and provides recommendations on how to ensure that surveillance activities are subjected to meaningful restrictions that protect the right to privacy, the integrity of confidential attorney-client communications and the right to a remedy for past abuses.