UN Regulations
Thomas Hoeren
1 General Data Protection Framework
1.1 Legislation and Relevant Case Law
Within the legal framework of international law, a wide variety of legislation and
standards are applicable regarding personal data protection. United Nations and
other subjects of international law like the Council of Europe (CoE), the OECD,
ECOWAS or APEC need to be considered. Due to the variety, the distinction
between the scopes of application for each corpus of legislation is vital.
One of the most important and greatest influences can be drawn back to the
Guidelines for the Regulation of Computerized Personal Data Files. They cannot be
considered legislation in a legal sense, but rather as recommendations.
1 The guidelines were adopted by the General Assembly resolution 45/95 on the 14th of
December 1990. Procedures for implementing the guidelines are explicitly left to
the initiative of each member state. The draft is subdivided in two chapters. The first
one proclaims principles concerning the minimum guarantees that should be provided in national legislation. The second subdivision states the application of the
guidelines kept by governmental international organizations.
Furthermore on UN level, article 12 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) and article 17 of the International Covenant on Social and Political Rights
(ICCPR) promote the protection of privacy.
T. Hoeren (*)
University of Münster, Münster, Germany
e-mail: Hoeren@uni-muenster.de
1 Burkert (2003), p. 100.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
D. Moura Vicente, S. de Vasconcelos Casimiro (eds.), Data Protection in the
Internet, Ius Comparatum – Global Studies in Comparative Law 38,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28049-9_20
519
Thomas Hoeren
1 General Data Protection Framework
1.1 Legislation and Relevant Case Law
Within the legal framework of international law, a wide variety of legislation and
standards are applicable regarding personal data protection. United Nations and
other subjects of international law like the Council of Europe (CoE), the OECD,
ECOWAS or APEC need to be considered. Due to the variety, the distinction
between the scopes of application for each corpus of legislation is vital.
One of the most important and greatest influences can be drawn back to the
Guidelines for the Regulation of Computerized Personal Data Files. They cannot be
considered legislation in a legal sense, but rather as recommendations.
1 The guidelines were adopted by the General Assembly resolution 45/95 on the 14th of
December 1990. Procedures for implementing the guidelines are explicitly left to
the initiative of each member state. The draft is subdivided in two chapters. The first
one proclaims principles concerning the minimum guarantees that should be provided in national legislation. The second subdivision states the application of the
guidelines kept by governmental international organizations.
Furthermore on UN level, article 12 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) and article 17 of the International Covenant on Social and Political Rights
(ICCPR) promote the protection of privacy.
T. Hoeren (*)
University of Münster, Münster, Germany
e-mail: Hoeren@uni-muenster.de
1 Burkert (2003), p. 100.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
D. Moura Vicente, S. de Vasconcelos Casimiro (eds.), Data Protection in the
Internet, Ius Comparatum – Global Studies in Comparative Law 38,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28049-9_20
519