CJI Legislative Guide (2015)

In 2013, the General Assembly requested the Inter-American Legal Committee (CJI) to formulate proposals on “the different ways to regulate the protection of personal data, including a draft Model Law on Protection of Personal Data, taking into account the international standards on the matter”. Following up on this mandate, the CJI requested information from OAS Member States on their practices and laws, conducted extensive consultations with experts and other actors involved in the formulation of principles and practices on the protection of personal data, including the European Union, APE , the OECD and representatives of governmental, academic, business and non-governmental organizations.

The CJI also observed the prevalence of different levels of protection in the countries; the absence of a uniform and coherent regional approach; and the dissimilarities in the approaches that other regions of the world present on the subject, and considered that the most important contribution that the CJI could make to the countries in this matter was to formulate a kind of legislative guide; a broad and general instrument based on the 12 Principles adopted in 2012 by the CJI itself.

Thus, in 2015 the CJI approved the Legislative Guide on Privacy and Protection of Personal Data, which explains the Principles adopted by the CJI itself in 2012 and serves as a roadmap to support the efforts of Member States to implement or update their regulations on this topic.