United Nations

GUIDELINES CONCERNING COMPUTERIZED PERSONAL
DATA FILES

adopted by the General Assembly on 14 December 1990

The procedures for implementing regulations concerning computerized
personal data files are left to the initiative of each State subject to the
following orientations:

A. Principles concerning the minimum guarantees that
should be provided in national legislations

1. PRINCIPLE OF LAWFULNESS AND FAIRNESS

Information about persons should not be collected or processed in unfair or
unlawful ways, nor should it be used for ends contrary to the purposes and
principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

2. PRINCIPLE OF ACCURACY

Persons responsible for the compilation of files or those responsible for
keeping them have an obligation to conduct regular checks on the accuracy
and relevance of the data recorded and to ensure that they are kept as
complete as possible in order to avoid errors of omission and that they are
kept up to date regularly or when the information contained in a file is used, as
long as they are being processed.

3. PRINCIPLE OF THE PURPOSE-SPECIFICATION

The purpose which a file is to serve and its utilization in terms of that purpose
should be specified, legitimate and, when it is established, receive a certain
amount of publicity or be brought to the attention of the person concerned, in
order to make it possible subsequently to ensure that:

(a) All the personal data collected and recorded remain relevant and adequate
to the purposes so specified;

(b) None of the said personal data is used or disclosed, except with the
consent of the person concerned, for purposes incompatible with those
specified;

(c) The period for which the personal data are kept does not exceed that
which would enable the achievement of the purpose so specified.

4. PRINCIPLE OF INTERESTED-PERSON ACCESS

Everyone who offers proof of identity has the right to know whether information
concerning him is being processed and to obtain it in an intelligible form,
without undue delay or expense, and to have appropriate rectifications or
erasures made in the case of unlawful, unnecessary or inaccurate entries and,
when it is being communicated, addressees. Provision should be made for a
remedy, if need be with the supervisory authority specified in principle 8 below.
The cost of any rectification shall be borne by the person responsible for the
file. It is desirable that the provisions of this principle should apply to everyone,
irrespective of nationality or place of residence.

5. PRINCIPLE OF NON-DISCRIMINATION

Subject to cases of exceptions restrictively envisaged under principle 6, data
likely to give rise to unlawful or arbitrary discrimination, including information on
racial or ethnic origin, colour, sex life, political opinions, religious, philosophical
and other beliefs as well as membership of an association or trade union,
should not be compiled.

6. POWER TO MAKE EXCEPTIONS

Departures from principles 1 to 4 may be authorized only if they are necessary
to protect national security, public order, public health or morality, as well as,
inter alia, the rights and freedoms of others, especially persons being
persecuted (humanitarian clause) provided that such departures are expressly
specified in a law or equivalent regulation promulgated in accordance with the
internal legal system which expressly states their limits and sets forth
appropriate safeguards.

Exceptions to principle 5 relating to the prohibition of discrimination, in addition
to being subject to the same safeguards as those prescribed for exceptions to
principles 1 and 4, may be authorized only within the limits prescribed by the
International Bill of Human Rights and the other relevant instruments in the field
of protection of human rights and the prevention of discrimination.

7. PRINCIPLE OF SECURITY

Appropriate measures should be taken to protect the files against both natural
dangers, such as accidental loss or destruction and human dangers, such as
unauthorized access, fraudulent misuse of data or contamination by computer
viruses.

8. SUPERVISION AND SANCTIONS

The law of every country shall designate the authority which, in accordance
with its domestic legal system, is to be responsible for supervising observance
of the principles set forth above. This authority shall offer guarantees of
impartiality, independence vis-a-vis persons or agencies responsible for
processing and establishing data, and technical competence. In the event of
violation of the provisions of the national law implementing the aforementioned
principles, criminal or other penalties should be envisaged together with the
appropriate individual remedies.

9. TRANSBORDER DATA FLOWS

When the legislation of two or more countries concerned by a transborder data
flow offers comparable safeguards for the protection of privacy, information
should be able to circulate as freely as inside each of the territories concerned.
If there are no reciprocal safeguards, limitations on such circulation may not be
imposed unduly and only in so far as the protection of privacy demands.

10. FIELD OF APPLICATION

The present principles should be made applicable, in the first instance, to all
public and private computerized files as well as, by means of optional extension
and subject to appropriate adjustments, to manual files. Special provision, also
optional, might be made to extend all or part of the principles to files on legal
persons particularly when they contain some information on individuals.

B. Application of the guidelines to personal data files kept by
governmental international organizations

The present guidelines should apply to personal data files kept by
governmental international organizations, subject to any adjustments required
to take account of any differences that might exist between files for internal
purposes such as those that concern personnel management and files for
external purposes concerning third parties having relations with the
organization.

Each organization should designate the authority statutorily competent to
supervise the observance of these guidelines.

Humanitarian clause: a derogation from these principles may be specifically
provided for when the purpose of the file is the protection of human rights and
fundamental freedoms of the individual concerned or humanitarian assistance.

A similar derogation should be provided in national legislation for governmental
international organizations whose headquarters agreement does not preclude
the implementation of the said national legislation as well as for
non-governmental international organizations to which this law is applicable.


Zuletzt geandert:
am 22.02.97