Year of entry into force:
Region: Universal
Legal Status: Intergovernmental - Non-binding
Excerpts
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 purposes 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