Dato Kanchashvili, netgazeti.ge
Will the personal lives of people protected in Georgia and what are the guarantees that their personal information will not become the reason for their personal discrimination - these are questions asked by one part of lawyers regarding the draft-law on the “Protection of Personnel Data”.
The draft-law, whose authors are MPs Pavle Kublashvili, Lasha Tordia and Kakhaber Anjaparidze, entitles every public and private agency to collect, to process and to send the personal information about the employees to the inspector whose apparatus will be created within the same draft-law.
“An employer might not employ a person based on his/her sexual orientation, illness or political belongings; and it will not be public information and the person will not be able to argue about the declination of his/her candidature on the ground,” said the lawyer of the Georgian Young Lawyers Association (GYLA) Tamar Kordzaia.
In the draft-law, the personal data about race or ethnic belonging, political opinions, religious or philosophic faith, membership of any trade union; data about health conditions, sexual orientation or criminal record belong to the special category.
Article 6 of the draft-law prohibits the processing of the data of the special category but it recognizes some exceptions; if a person, whose personal data is being processed, agreed in written form or made public or the data is being processed “in compliance with the law through preserving the important public interests.”
Lasha Tordia clarified the important public interest as follows: “A kindergarten or any healthcare agency should have information because of its purpose whether a person has HIV/AIDS, or a kindergarten should have information about the sexual orientation of a person.”
He also added that public interest protects the rights of the society and it goes down to the rights of each person. “In the case of particularly sensitive topics, the data should be protected. This data should be used for concrete purpose and it cannot be misused by somebody.”
Lawyer Tamar Kordzaia thinks this concrete exception might become a reason for the employer to discriminate an employee because of his/her different personal traits. “Processing the data” is clarified in the draft-law as collecting-processing and dissemination of the information. After the information is processed and sent to the personal data registry of the inspector, it becomes public and everybody can request it.
“When the law states that information of particular importance might be processed, it allows you to release it as well. Unless the procedures of releasing the information is regulated separately, the risk of unrevealing the information might appear,” said Tamar Kordzaia.
The Constitution of Georgia and any other international act, which guarantee the human rights, aim to restrict the discrimination. Lawyer of the GYLA Vakhushti Menabde speaks about the details incompliant to the Constitution of Georgia in the draft-law on the “Protection of Personal Data”. “If you compare the draft-law with the constitution, the latter already clarifies when the information can be released if it deals with public safety or state security, etc. The Constitution already specifies the general notes which are mentioned here. However, there are several articles, which cannot be changed with any clarifications and remain problematic. For example, the fifth article which states that information can be processed if it is obligatory for the implementation of the responsibilities imposed on the person-in-charge under the legislation.”
He added that the responsibilities imposed by the legislation might consume many paragraphs part of which might comply with the Constitution or contradict it.
“The law should have a packet of law amendments enclosed to it in order to make us aware about the law which clarifies the public interest which might be more important than the dissemination of the information about my religious faith,” said Tamar Kordzaia.
Before the draft-law is put in force, Article 43 of the General Administrative Code regulates the protection of the personal data. According to the article, a public agency shall not collect, process, store or release the personal data about religious, sexual and ethnic belongings, or about his/her political or world view.
According to the draft-law, the violation of the principles on the processing of personal data shall be fined from 500 to 10 000 GEL or administrative liability shall be imposed on the violator. The position of the inspector is introduced to ensure the protection of the personal information. The prime-minister will appoint the inspector; the parliament, public defender and non-governmental organizations will take part in his/her selection. The inspector is entitled to control and recommend, to give directives and make decisions. The requirements of the inspector are imperative for public agencies and private entities too. The argument in this field might be discussed only at the court.
The legal and human rights committees of the parliament of Georgia already discussed the draft law. The parliament will start its discussion in near future.
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