In 1950, the UN General Assembly tasked the High Commissioner for Refugees to provide international protection to refugees. Would you agree that the Data protection Policy is derived from it?Ī.B: Yes, data protection is firmly rooted in UNHCR’s mandate. This is what the Data Protection Policy does. In the years before the Policy was adopted, we felt the need for a more principled response to an increasing number of requests from UNHCR offices in the field including the acknowledgment of certain rights refugees have as ‘data subjects’. That means many UNHCR staff and colleagues and partner organisations need to process a lot of information on individual refugees, asylum-seekers, internally displaced persons, and other people whom we protect and assist – so-called personal data – in our daily work. UNHCR took that step because we are a very data intensive organization.

What is new in the Data Protection Policy is the terminology and a closer alignment to principles and concepts of data protection law that we consider to be good international practice and fully compatible with UNHCR’s mandate. Earlier internal memoranda and guidelines dealt with the issue from a confidentiality perspective.

Can you tell us why UNHCR took this step?Īlexander Beck: Data protection is a longstanding priority for UNHCR. This is the first data protection instrument in a UN agency. Since 2015, UNHCR has its own Data Protection Policy. Interview: Data Protection in UNHCR “Data protection is part and parcel of refugee protection”Īlexander Beck, Senior Data Protection Officer based in Copenhagen, on the particular role of data protection for UNHCR.

Part and parcel