The Quest for Information Privacy in Africa

The Quest for Information Privacy in Africa: A Review Essay

The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Charter or Charter) does not contain a clause permitting suspension of human rights during while major human rights instruments allow state parties to suspend some rights. The African Commission on Human and Peoplesâ?? Rights (African Commission or Commission) has repeatedly held that a declaration of a state of emergency cannot be invoked as a justification for violations or permitting violations of the African Charter. The silence of the African Charter and the position of the African Commission have not been welcomed by some scholars. The African Charter enjoys universal ratification as all member states of the African Union are parties thereto. Upon ratification, state parties have undertaken to adopt legislative and other measures to give effect to the rights recognised therein. However, an examination of their constitutions reveals that state parties have not taken sufficient legislative measures to ensure compatibility of their laws with the African Charter. As a result, many African constitutions contain clauses. This article argues that the omission of a clause from the African Charter was not a mistake. And it is not a defect in the Charter. Rather, it shows positive development of human rights norms in Africa and should not be seen as a defect. The arguments calling for incorporation of a clause fail to consider factors that may justify its absence. The incorporation of a clause in the African constitutions and consequently derogating from constitutional rights are violations of the African Charter and other international human rights treaties including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The article is organised in seven sections. The first section introduces the issues to be explored. The second section discusses the meaning of important terms such as derogation and public emergency, and the purpose served by derogating from human rights. The third section presents arguments against the absence of clauses together with the factors that may justify their absence. The fourth section makes a brief survey of the African constitutions to examine their compatibility with the African Charter. The fifth and sixth sections discuss the implication of derogating from the constitutional rights under the African Charter and other human rights instruments respectively. The last section makes some concluding remarks.

Problem setting. In order to build an innovative society, it is necessary to develop legal norms and regulators aimed at protecting privacy and controlling personal data. In addition, the need to ensure effective and reliable protection of personal data in the conditions of rapid technological development, globalization and the growing threat of cybercrime is becoming more urgent. The need for the development of legal norms, the introduction of innovative technologies and the raising of public awareness become important tasks for ensuring privacy and protection of personal data. The study also aims to identify and analyze the main challenges facing the field of personal data protection, such as cybercrime, hacker attacks, globalization and cross borders. Legal norms and regulations aimed at protecting privacy are also analyzed, as well as the potential opportunities of new technologies that can increase the level of protection of personal data. Аnalysis of recent researches and publications. The problems of legal protection of personal data have recently become the subject of research by an increasing number of scientists, both lawyers and representatives of other fields of knowledge. In particular, such scientists as: S. Hlibko, T. Egorova-Lutchenko, K. Yefremova, O. Korvat, V. Kokhan, M. Haustova devote their attention to the study of these issues. etc. Purpose of the research is to develop possible ways of legal protection of personal data in view of today’s challenges related to this issue. The article aims to consider the development of technologies and the growth of the volume of personal data as the main factors affecting the need for effective protection of privacy and security of this data. The article is aimed at expanding the understanding of the problem and providing recommendations for improving the protection of privacy and security of personal data in the future. article’s main body. According to the preamble to the Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union on the participation of Ukraine in the European Union program “Digital Europe” (2021-2027), the important supporting role of digital infrastructure, including in the field of cyber security, is recognized to ensure inextricably linked transformation processes and digital leadership of the European Union. The purpose of concluding the Agreement is to establish mutually beneficial cooperation in order to strengthen and support the deployment of reliable and secure digital capabilities in the Union in the field, including cyber security. It is recognized that mutual participation in each other’s programs for the implementation of digital technologies should ensure mutual benefits for the Parties, while observing a high level of data protection, digital rights, etc. In accordance with paragraph 12 of Article 2 of Annex III to the Agreement, the exchange of information between the European Commission or OLAF and the competent state authorities of Ukraine must take place with due consideration of confidentiality requirements. Personal data included in the exchange of information must be transferred in accordance with the current legal norms on data protection of the Party making the transfer. According to paragraph 49 of the preamble of Regulation (EU) 2021/694 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 29, 2021 on the establishment of the Digital Europe Program, digital transformation should allow citizens to access, use and securely manage their personal data across borders, regardless of their location or data location. According to point 60 of the preamble, by providing a single set of rules that are directly applicable in the legal systems of the Member States, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 guarantees the free flow of personal data between Member States and strengthens the trust and security of individuals, two indispensable elements of a true Digital Single Market . All actions taken within the framework of the Program, which involve the processing of personal data, must contribute to the smooth implementation of this Regulation, for example, in the field of artificial intelligence and distributed ledger technologies (for example, blockchain). These actions should support the development of digital technologies that meet data protection obligations both by design and by default. In addition, according to paragraph 69 of the preamble, this Regulation respects fundamental rights and adheres to the principles recognized in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in particular regarding the protection of personal data, etc. In the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2016/C 202/02) dated June 7, 2016, Chapter II “Freedoms” contains Article 8, which is entitled “Protection of personal data”, according to which it is assumed that everyone has the right to the protection of personal data data concerning him. Such data must be processed fairly for specific purposes and on the basis of the consent of the person concerned or on another legal basis established by law. Everyone has the right to access the data that has been collected about him and the right to correct it. Compliance with these rules is subject to control by an independent body. In addition, Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data establishes rules relating to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data, as well as rules, relating to the free movement of personal data, and protects the fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and, in particular, their right to protection of personal data. Today in Ukraine, the main legislative act in this area is the Law of June 1, 2010 No. 2997-VI “On the Protection of Personal Data”. Article 11 of the Law of Ukraine “On Information” specifies what information about a natural person (personal data) is. In turn, the legal and organizational bases for ensuring the protection of the vital interests of a person and citizen, society and the state, national interests of Ukraine in cyberspace, the main goals, directions and principles of state policy in the field of cyber security, the powers of state bodies, enterprises, institutions, organizations, individuals and citizens in this area, the basic principles of coordination of their cyber security activities are defined in the Law of Ukraine “On Basic Principles of Cyber Security of Ukraine”. In addition, relations in the field of information protection in information, electronic communication and information and communication systems are regulated by the Law of Ukraine “On the Protection of Information in Information and Communication Systems”. In turn, the Concept of the development of e-governance in Ukraine, as well as the Law of Ukraine “On the National Informatization Program” defines e-governance. In addition, in 2021, the Law of Ukraine “On Public Electronic Registers” was adopted, which defines the State electronic platform for maintaining public electronic registers. On April 18, 2023, by a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Regulation on the information system “Software platform for the deployment and support of state electronic registers” was approved, as well as the Procedure for using the software “Software platform for the deployment and support of state electronic registers”. conclusions and prospects for the development. The protection of digital personal data requires the development of appropriate technical and regulatory tools, as well as judicial practice of prosecution for violations of the order of their use. It is possible to create a database or registry for private electronic/digital platforms, with the help of which or which would control their activities, including regarding the protection of personal data. At the same time, at the regulatory and legal level, it is necessary to provide that a mandatory condition for the creation and functioning of an Internet platform is its registration in such a database / such a register, and a mandatory condition for registration is confirmation of technical capabilities to ensure the protection of personal data of platform users. It is necessary to define at the regulatory level the list and mechanisms of acquisition of digital rights, their implementation, protection, compensation and responsibility for their violation. The protection of personal data should be considered one of the digital rights of a person and a citizen. The development of digitalization in a legal state must inevitably be accompanied by the development of the legal framework, in particular, the emergence, consolidation, definition and protection of digital rights of individuals and legal entities. Digital rights are a multifaceted category, they become connected and interwoven with other rights defined and established in the norms of different branches of law. The multifaceted nature of the “digital rights” category implies the separation and delimitation of various categories of digital rights, their distribution into appropriate types, for example, “personal digital rights”, “financial digital rights”, etc. It should be quite natural to form a separate element in the general system of law, such as digital law, as a set of legal norms regulating social relations related to the circulation of (including personal) data in digital networks.

La actividad cotidiana de cualquier persona deja hoy “rastro digital”. Esto obliga a plantear: ?Que ocurre con nuestro “rastro digital” cuando morimos? ?Puede la persona prever algo al respecto? El hecho de que en el “rastro digital” puedan verse involucrados tanto aspectos de caracter neta­mente personal como patrimonial, determina que la aproximacion al “rastro digital” dejado por la per­sona al fallecer pueda hacerse: o bien desde una perspectiva eminentemente patrimonial-sucesoria, de la gestion y/o el destino del patrimonio digital; o bien desde una perspectiva eminentemente personal, de la proteccion post mortem de la intimidad/privacidad y/o de los datos personales tanto del fallecido como de terceros. Este doble enfoque se refleja en la practica y tambien en la legislacion comparada, europea y norteamericana. Mas concretamente, es esta una materia en la que confluyen cuestiones de Derecho de sucesiones, de Derecho contractual y de Derecho de la persona –en particular, relativas a la proteccion de datos personales y a la proteccion de la intimidad/privacidad postuma y de terceros–. Asi, por lo que respecta al punto de vista patrimonial, si bien en principio no es posible hablar de la “heren­cia digital” como algo distinto de la “herencia analogica”, ello no obsta a que deban tenerse en cuenta ciertas especificidades que rodean y/o afectan a ciertos “bienes digitales”, en algun caso tributarias del Derecho de contratos. En este contexto, la persona puede ordenar sus “voluntades digitales”, previendo disposiciones sucesorias (nombrando “sucesores digitales”) y/o no sucesorias (ya sea designando “albacea/s digital/ es” o bien quien va a poder actuar en relacion a la proteccion de sus datos personales y/o al ejercicio de las acciones de proteccion civil del honor, la intimidad o la imagen). Por lo que respecta a la legislacion espanola, la Ley catalana 10/2017, de 27 de junio, de las volun­tades digitales, adopta una perspectiva esencialmente patrimonial, previendo la posibilidad de designar un “albacea digital” para que actue ante los prestadores de servicios digitales con los que el causante tenga cuentas activas. El hecho de que la norma catalana se muestre plenamente respetuosa con el con­tenido del contrato suscrito entre el usuario fallecido y el prestador de servicios contrasta con las solu­ciones adoptadas al respecto en otros ordenamientos. Por otra parte, la regla por defecto de no acceso al “contenido” de las cuentas y archivos digitales, salvo que el causante lo haya establecido o se obtenga autorizacion judicial, aproxima la Ley catalana a lo previsto en otros sistemas. En la Ley Organica 3/2018, de 5 de diciembre, de Proteccion de Datos Personales y garantia de los derechos digitales, confluyen tanto el enfoque personal –de la proteccion de datos de las personas fallecidas–, como el patrimonial –relativo a los “contenidos digitales”– (en el mal llamado “testamento digital”). Esta ley parte de la regla de acceso por defecto a los contenidos digitales o a los datos perso­nales del fallecido, y establece una legitimacion muy amplia en cuanto a facultades y demasiado extensa en cuanto a personas legitimadas, sin establecer prelacion alguna entre ellas. Esto, que puede generar problemas en la practica, contrasta con lo previsto en la Ley catalana y en otras legislaciones de nuestro entorno. La Ley Organica 3/2018 se revela, asi, mas como una ley de desproteccion de datos y de con­tenidos digitales, que no de proteccion de los mismos.

This chapter describes the international treaties and commentary which contains seven sections. The first section talks about the international covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR). The ICCPR is a treaty. It was adopted by United Nations General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966. It entered into force on 23 March 1976. The covenant specifies human rights obligations of states parties and sets up a human rights committee to monitor compliance with those obligations. The last section talks about the human rights committee, General Comment 23, A/49/40, Volume 1, Annual Report of the UN human rights committee, Annex V. The human rights committee, the Committee created by the ICCPR, monitors compliance by states parties with their Covenant obligations. The Covenant draws a distinction between the right to self-determination and the rights protected under article 27.Keywords: human rights committee; International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)

The United States and the ICCPR Aaron Thompson In 1966, the United Nations adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This document was designed to strengthen and further elaborate upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically regarding the civil rights of individuals, including the freedom of speech, the right to a fair trial, and the right to be treated equally (without the distinction of race, gender, or religion). In 1977, eleven years after the UN ratified the ICCPR, the Carter Administration submitted to document to the U.S. Congress for ratification. However, in Carter’s transmission message, there was an accompanying note that allowed Congress to attach reservations, understandings, or declarations (RUDs) to the document. These stipulations essentially acted as caveats to the ICCPR, outlining which articles the United States would either not obey or would interpret in its own way due to conflict with pre-existing U.S. law. When the Senate finally ratified the ICCPR in June 1992, the United States had attached thirteen RUDs to the convention. Among these RUDs were five reservations, including those that kept the United States exempt from stipulations on hate speech, capital punishment, the use of “cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment,” and the separation of juvenile and adult offenders. In addition, the Senate determined that the covenant would be “non-self-executing,” meaning that it would not act as binding law in U.S. courts. Although many countries were glad that the United States had finally ratified the ICCPR after 25 years of deliberations, others were concerned about the precedent set by the U.S.’s various reservations. While RUDs are commonly attached to other types of treaties, the U.S.’s application of RUDs to the ICCPR was problematic for a number of international actors. As the UN Human Rights Committee commented in 1995, “Such treaties, and the Covenant specifically, are not a web of inter-State exchanges of mutual obligations. They concern the endowment of individuals with rights.”1 Based on the universal nature of these rights, the Committee argued, countries like the United States could not pick and choose which ones they did or did not want to obey. The American approach to the ICCPR demonstrates the problematic nature of the universal values that liberal democracies like the United States have claimed to profess and promote. As George W. Bush stated in his second inaugural address, “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly [End Page 105] depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”2 For President Bush and for others who follow this philosophy, it is the moral responsibility of free countries like the United States to promote such liberty throughout the world. Yet, as this debate between the United States and the Human Rights Committee demonstrates, the liberal democracies of the world are themselves still in search of a universal conception of liberty, as exceptions and reservations can even be found in a document that lists the most basic and fundamental of rights. Footnotes 1. Dunoff, Jeffrey, Steven Ratner, and David Wippman. International Law: Norms, Actors, Process . New York: Aspen Publishers, 2006, p. 437 2. George W. Bush. Second Inaugural Address http://www.whitehouse.gov/inaugural/index.html [End Page 106] Copyright © 2008 The Johns Hopkins University Press

The Protection of Personal Data became an important issue for the Albanian citizens. The new era of the protection of personal data through administrative claims started after 2008. This brought up sensitive issues like unauthorised legal processing of data on media and online portals, e-mail lack of personal data security, online data processing and online security etc. The sensibility of people increased when personal data were used for political or commercial benefits. During the COVID-19 pandemic period our lives were dominated by technology as the only means of connecting with others or continuing our normal life in abnormal conditions. On one side, human rights were suffering the most powerful restrictions and on the other,technology was gaining position faster. This paper raises questions on the relation between the protection of dignity, honour and privacy of the persons as a democratic value and technological evolution. This paper aims to introduce the Albanian legislation on the protection of privacy and personal data, legal reforms and their adaptation to international law through case law and jurisprudence. Findings, suggest the need for an international global binding act, which would facilitate the process of exchanging information, reduce administrative barriers, and increase the connection and collaboration.

This chapter discusses the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which is in charge of the supervision of a major human rights treaty within the UN machinery, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This was adopted in 1966 and came into force in 1976. The Human Rights Committee enjoys a peculiar position in the international human rights architecture. It has been labelled ‘as one of the most active and innovative’ bodies among the UN institutions involved in human rights monitoring, considering that it is in charge of one of the two covenants which, together with the Universal Declaration, are sometimes presented as the ‘International Bill of Rights’ and covers the broadest subject-jurisdiction matter. At the same time, the Committee and its work remain overlooked and quite obscure even for most human rights lawyers and certainly for a lay audience. The chapter assesses the Committee’s mechanisms and work.

Privacy as a legal concept is an unavoidable part of a modern democratic society and is recognized as one of the fundamental human rights of every citizen. The right to privacy and the protection of personal data are guaranteed by international human rights documents. In librarianship, the right to privacy and protection of personal data is also guaranteed in the documents of international library associations, which clearly emphasize that librarians are obliged in their work to protect the privacy and personal data of their users. Privacy and personal data are increasingly difficult to protect today, as access to data is simpler and easier due to the use of different and new information technologies, electronic communication, social networks, electronic databases, etc. Personal rights are guaranteed by international documents on protection of personal data and protected by national personal data protection laws. The main objectives of the paper are: to problematize the definition of the concept of privacy from several perspectives; problematize the importance of the right to privacy and protection of personal data in the context of the library profession; provide an overview of significant international documents in the field of human rights which also guarantee the right to privacy and protection of personal data; make a review of important international documents guaranteeing the right to protection and confidentiality of personal data; and finally, the paper will provide an overview of documents of international library associations that in their texts indicate the importance of privacy and protection of personal data in the library business.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (African Charter) which is the central instrument for regional human rights protection in Africa, throws up numerous questions. This chapter examines these questions by evaluating the effect of nearly a quarter century's practice under the African Charter. It considers some key weaknesses in the African Charter and observes that nearly a quarter century's practice on the African Charter has shown the Charter to be substantively feeble and procedurally inadequate to ensure effective human rights protection on the continent. It is also argued that because of the inherent weaknesses in the African Charter, drawing inspiration from the international human rights instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) would strengthen standard setting in Africa. Keywords:African Charter; African Regional Human; ICCPR; ICESCR; System Tentative Reflections; UDHR

The era of globalization and digitalization have become a necessary process for the legal and legal regulation of human rights. This is taken into account by the fact that technological-technological advances have increased fears of human rights violations. This is especially noteworthy in communication tools, the internet and so on. With the intent, protection of personal data and privacy In the international sphere, the EU has made the coding of the protection of personal data through Directive no. 95/96 EC, which entered into force on 24 October 1995, then the ECHR, the European Commission proposal, January 2012, on the reform of the European Data Protection Regulations, which was formulated in the Regulation which came into force on 24 May, 2016 and the General Directive, which entered into force on May 5, 2016. However, according to surveys made with EU citizens, credibility for the protection of personal data from EU institutions and those of member states is below the minimum. The protection of privacy in Kosovo is being done through the legislation and the establishment of the State Agency for the Protection of Personal Data even though Kosovo does not have sufficient technical and material resources for the minimal protection of personal data and privacy in general. This topic addresses the issue of providing information, the confidentiality of the data subject and the security of proceedings and the supervisory authority. Also, the instructions contained in the regulations, the sanctioning of these rights under the penal code necessarily make the approval of the telecommunications law in Kosovo.

ABSTRACTThe present article examines the Human Rights Committee’s pronouncements on the relationship between the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and international humanitarian law (IHL), taking into account the developments in the jurisprudence of other human rights bodies. The analysis aims to clarify the theoretical underpinnings of the relationship between the ICCPR and IHL, paying special attention to the complementarity perspective and the interpretive principle of systemic integration. The article critically examines the Human Rights Committee’s understanding of how the Covenant applies in armed conflict, specifically in relation to the protection of the rights to life and liberty and the regulation of the use of force and security detention; it considers both the shortcomings and the innovative aspects of the Committee’s interpretations. The analysis concludes by exploring the normative and practical implications deriving from the concurrent application of IHL and the Covenant, particularly with regard to the Committee’s ability to review state action in armed conflict, the duty to investigate violations, and the right to a remedy and reparation for victims.

The UN Human Rights Committee is an independent body of 18 experts, which was established in 1976 to monitor State party compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and to act as a quasi-judicial organ with competence to examine complaints from individuals, pursuant to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant (OP). Bearing in mind that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has no competence to examine cases submitted by individuals, the Human Rights Committee (HRC) is the closest the world has ever come to an international court of human rights. According to rule 92 of the Committee’s rules of procedure the Committee may inform the State party that interim measures of protection may be desirable to avoid irreparable harm to the victim of the alleged violation. Keywords: Human Rights Committee (HRC); ICCPR; international court of human rights; International Court of Justice (ICJ); Optional Protocol (OP); State party; UN Human Rights Committee

The article is devoted to the study of the organizational and legal mechanism of personal data protection. The concept of "personal data protection" is developed in detail in domestic jurisprudence. The law regulates legal relations related to the protection and processing of personal data, with the aim of protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen, and, first of all, the right to non-interference in personal life, in connection with the processing of personal data. However, the rapid development of information technologies, the digitization of society forces us to improve the organizational and legal mechanism of personal data protection every time, to search for more effective and reliable methods and means of their protection. The actual legal basis for the protection of personal data can be found in the Constitution of Ukraine, the Criminal Code of Ukraine, the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Personal Data", decisions of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, international legal acts, consent to the mandatory use of which was given by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It is substantiated that it is the state that acts as the guarantor of the protection of a person's personal data - its task is to create an organizational and legal mechanism that would effectively protect human rights related to personal data, etc. The organizational component of the personal data protection mechanism covers the vertical of state bodies and services, which, in accordance with the powers assigned to them, carry out personal data protection activities. On the basis of the conducted research, we came to the conclusion that the organizational and legal mechanism for the protection of personal data is a set of legal norms and a complex of preventive measures carried out by relevant state bodies and services aimed at protecting personal data, stopping offenses, applying coercion to offenders and restoring violated human rights related to personal data.

Chemistry Students and Human Rights