Right to Privacy

Right to Privacy

The right to privacy has developed as a nearly universal human right. The best evidence of that trend is the adoption of comprehensive privacy and data protection standards and statutes, as well as the right's inclusion in the Universal

Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

An example of broad support for privacy rights can be found in the 1980 Organization for Economic Protection and Development (OECD) Guidelines on the Protection of Privacy and the 1985 Declaration on Transborder Flows of Personal Data, which document international guidance concerning the collection and management of personal information. Containing core principles, the Guidelines assist both governments and the private sector in their efforts to protect privacy and personal data.

As an example at the national level, Australia—in its Privacy Act of 1988—recognized privacy principles based on OECD Guidelines. Sometimes privacy principles have also been embedded in national constitutions, as in Article 22 of the Belgian Constitution or Article 5 of the Constitution of Brazil. The French Constitutional Council has ruled that the right to privacy is implicit in the French Constitution, as has the Indian Supreme Court, interpreting its country's 1950 Constitution.

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