The Department of International Law (DDI) has
joined the activities held worldwide on the
occasion of the International Day for the
Protection of Personal Data, celebrated on
January 28 in commemoration of the signing of
the European Council’s Convention 108 for the
protection of people with respect to the
automated processing of personal data, in 1981.
The International Day for the Protection of
Personal Data aims to raise awareness of the
importance of protecting, promoting and
disseminating the right to privacy, as well as
about the international and national instruments
that allow them to exercise that right in a more
effective way. Every year, data protection
authorities, organizations and associations from
the public, private and civil society sectors
around the world organize information sessions,
seminars, debates and presentations to raise
awareness of the importance of this right.
In this vein, the Department of International
Law participated in the International Forum:
Data Protection and Access to Public Information
in the Administration of Justice, organized by
the Judicial Branch of the Republic of Costa
Rica with the aim of fostering a space for
reflection, dialogue, and exchange of
experiences and good practices on this issue,
with a view to strengthening access to justice
and the quality of its administration, and
ensuring respect for the principle of legality
for the protection of personal data contained in
public documents.
The event was attended by Dr. Mauricio París,
international expert in data protection and Dr.
Dante Negro, Director of the OAS Department of
International Law, who referred to the Model
Inter-American Law 2.0 on Access to Public
Information, approved in October 2020 by the OAS
General Assembly, and its importance for the
protection of personal data contained in public
documents.
Furthermore, in its capacity as Technical
Secretariat of the Inter-American Juridical
Committee (CJI), the DDI provides support to the
rapporteurship for updating the Principles of
Privacy and Data Protection adopted by the CJI
in 2015. This rapporteurship has prepared a
proposal that is being consulted with the
guarantor bodies of the OAS member states, with
a view to being evaluated by the members of the
CJI at its next regular session scheduled for
April. The updated proposal constitutes an
important effort to raise regional levels of
personal data protection, with an emphasis on
informed consent and strengthening the control
of this data by its owners, among others.
»
To view the Model Inter-American Law 2.0 on
Access to Public Information,
click here.
»
To learn more about the work of the
Inter-American Juridical Committee on this
issue,
click here.
For further information on this matter, please contact the Department of International Law of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs of the OAS + 1 202 370 0743.