United Nations creates Special Rapporteur on Right to Privacy

The UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution on The Right to Privacy in the Digital Age that will lead to the selection of an independent expert on privacy. With 91 NGO worldwide, HCLU called on the UN Human Rights Council in a joint statement to establish a new mandate of a Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy.

The new special rapporteur has a broad mandate to cover all aspects of privacy and will be able to take on these concerns through a variety of means, including:

• reviewing government policies on interception of digital communications;
• identifying best practices to bring global surveillance under the rule of law and helping ensure that national procedures and laws that have bearing on privacy are consistent with international human rights law obligations;
• examining private sector responsibilities to respect human rights;
• helping develop international norms that more effectively address the interaction between privacy, freedom of expression,
• bringing focused attention to levels of transparency about what data businesses retain, and how those practices in many instances have a direct bearing on what governments are able to collect and monitor; context of indiscriminate mass surveillance, leading to a more comprehensive approach to the protection of privacy.

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