During its 51st Regular Session,
held from November 10 - 12, the OAS
General Assembly approved the Updated Principles
on Privacy and the Protection of Personal Data
prepared by the Inter-American Juridical
Committee (CJI).
This approval fulfills a mandate
conferred by the General Assembly to the CJI in
June 2018, consisting of initiating "the
updating of the Principles on the Protection of
Personal Data, taking into account the evolution
thereof ". Thus, the CJI, with the support of
the Department of International Law (DIL) as its
Technical Secretariat, was given the task of
conducting a broad consultation process on the
specific issues in the Principles on Privacy and
Data Protection in the Americas originally
adopted by the CJI in 2012 that should be
strengthened, revised, or adapted.
This process was enriched with inputs
from OAS Member States, the International
Committee of the Red Cross, the Inter-American
Commission of Women, and the Ibero-American Data
Protection Network. In addition, the Rapporteur
took into account international instruments that
enshrine the latest developments in the field,
seeking their syntony with the Updated
Principles.
These 13 Principles reflect the different
approaches that prevail in the Member States on
the core issues of the protection of personal
data, including consent, the purposes and means
for the collection and processing of such data,
the cross-border flow and security of personal
data, special protection for sensitive data, and
the exercise of the rights of access,
rectification, cancellation, opposition and
portability.
The Updated Principles, as an instrument of
inter-American soft law, aim to serve the Member
States as a point of reference for the
strengthening of their respective legal
frameworks in this area, and to guide the
collective development of the region towards a
harmonious and effective protection of personal
data.
» To read the Updated Principles on Privacy and the Protection of Personal Data,
click here.
»
To visit the DIL’s web page on personal data protection,
click here.
