"The top U.N. human rights official suggested on Wednesday the United States should abandon its efforts to prosecute Edward Snowden...'We owe a great deal to him for revealing this kind of information'... Snowden should be seen as a 'human rights defender'.
'I am raising right here some very important arguments that could be raised on his behalf so that these criminal proceedings are averted,' she said.
Pillay was speaking after issuing a report on government surveillance, 'The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age'...
The report... will be debated at the U.N. General Assembly later this year."