The
call to the UN was made in a declaration adopted at the 27th
International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy
Commissioners in Montreux last week.
In what they have called the Montreux Declaration, the
commissioners also call for governments to encourage the adoption
of legislation in line with recognised data protection principles
and to extend it to their mutual relations; and for the Council of
Europe to invite non-member states of the organisation to ratify
the Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to
automatic processing of personal data and its additional
protocol.
International organisations have been asked to commit themselves
to complying with data protection rules, international
non-governmental organisations have been asked to draw up data
protection standards; and hardware and software manufacturers have
been asked to develop products and systems that integrate
privacy-enhancing technologies.
The nature of the legally-binding instrument to be adopted by
the UN is not prescribed; but Swiss data-protection commissioner
Hanspeter Thür told SwissInfo.org that it could be a text adopted
by the UN in the same way as human-rights provisions.
Progress in implementing the objectives will be subject to a
regular assessment. The first such assessment will be carried out
at the 28th International Conference, due to take place in
September 2006 in Argentina.
The commissioners also adopted a resolution presented by Germany
on the use of biometric data in passports, ID cards and travel
documents. In it, the commissioners call for effective safeguards
to be built in so as to limit the risks inherent in biometrics.
They also adopted a resolution from Italy on the use of personal
data for political communication purposes.
