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.
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