In line with the schedule of country visits announced in his report to the UN Human Rights Council of 7 March 2017, United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy, Professor Joseph Cannataci, will conduct his first official country visit to the United States of America from June 17th – June 27th, 2017.
The purpose of this visit is to examine in situ questions relating to his mandate which would help to identify good practices from which others could benefit as well as areas that need improvement, in relation to which the Special Rapporteur will seek to make constructive and concrete recommendations.
During the visit, the Special Rapporteur, will consider various issues related to his mandate, but more specifically, the Special Rapporteur would be interested in issues related to the set of five thematic priorities which are currently the main focus of his mandate. These are:
a) Security & Surveillance
b) Big Data & Open Data
c) Health Data
d) Personal data processed by Corporations
e) A better understanding of Privacy
During this country visit, Special Rapporteur Cannataci will meet with US official authorities as well as representatives from civil society and other stakeholders – these include activists, media, journalists, academics and other private actors.
In preparation for this visit the Special Rapporteur invites all experts and organizations working on privacy-related issues in the United States to send him their views on any one or more of the above priorities or any other important privacy-related matter in advance of the visit but no later than 31st May 2017 so that he would be able to reflect their concerns and priorities in the various meetings he plans to conduct during the country visit.
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy was established in 2015 by the UN Human Rights Council resolution 28/16. A Special Rapporteur is an independent expert appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. This position is honorary and the expert is not United Nations staff nor paid for his/her work.
The Special Rapporteur is mandated by Human Rights Council Resolution 28/16 to, inter alia, to identify possible obstacles to the promotion and protection of the right to privacy, to raise awareness concerning the importance of promoting and protecting the right to privacy, and to submit an annual report to the Human Rights Council and to the UN General Assembly.