‘No one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and reputation.’
Introduction
The Government was supposed to protect us, by protecting our Rights and freedoms. Not by enforcing it’s morality, or ethics, or by protecting us from ourselves, or by saving us from ourselves, like we were children, and could not choose for ourselves, what is right for us, or what is wrong for us. Protecting our Rights will be through laws, legislation and Government. People have the free-will and Right to choose for themselves, to choose their own morality and ethics, and their own way of life[1]. There is a Fundamental Human Right for us to live free from harm, for our family, our property and everyone as individuals. Harming other people and their property may be immoral but is also violating the Right to live free from harm.
THE KEY CONCEPT
Our founding fathers created the Constitution and the Bill of Rights for a Good and moral society. They knew that only in a moral society can a people be free, because a good and moral people do not need many laws and regulations to keep themselves safe, secure and free with Liberty and Justice for all. Everybody in the worlds is not good. Lots of people will have the tendency to violent the law to make some benefit for their own. As a human being, we have the rights to have liberty[2], secure ourselves, property and reputation.
Privacy, home and corresponding:
A person’s right to control access to his or her personal information is called privacy[3]. The right of the individual to determine when, how, and to what extent he or she will release personal information can be defined as privacy[4]. Privacy is often raised in the context of government collection or distribution of personal information[5]. Privacy is a fundamental human right. It underpins human dignity and other values such as freedom of association and freedom of speech means the individual’s rights to be left alone[6]. Other people can not manipulate one’s privacy. If other people interfere on the other people’s private information without taking permission of the person, then it cross the boundary of the freedom.
Aspects of Privacy
Privacy can be divided into the following separate but related concepts:
Information privacy[7], which involves the establishment of rules governing the collection and handling of personal data such as credit information, and medical and government records. It is also known as “data protection”;
Bodily privacy, which concerns the protection of people’s physical selves against invasive procedures such as genetic tests, drug testing and cavity searches;
Privacy of communications, which covers the security and privacy of mail, telephones, e-mail and other forms of communication; and
Territorial privacy, which concerns the setting of limits on intrusion into the domestic and other environments such as the workplace or public space. This includes searches, video surveillance and ID checks.
Respect for home, private and family life
Home and family means is a personal life.[8] Home is the property of the home owner. People are live in the civil society. They want freedom and safety from any types of interference. Everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications[9]. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, and housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.[10] Freedom from arbitrary interference in private and family life, home and correspondence in according with United Nation Deceleration included in the list of guaranteed rights and freedom of the family rights .which are represented by[11]:
a) freedom from all arbitrary interference in family life;
b) The right to marry and finds a family;
c) The prior right of parents to choose the kinds of education to be given to their children.
Corresponding is the letter, agreement, email, newsgroups, Internet forums, blogs etc. Personal letter or business letter, agreement, Email is a private and very important thing. To keep the privacy is desirable to the owner[12]. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks[13].
Interference on privacy, home and corresponding
An “interference” with privacy is a legal term that involves two aspects.[14] First, there must be a breach of the law and, second, there must be some harm that arose from it.
The breach may be of:
- one of the Privacy Act’s 12 privacy principles, which govern how people and organizations collect[15], use, disclose[16], store and give access[17] to personal information; or
- a Privacy Code of Practice that governs a specific area, such as the Health Information[18] Privacy Code; or
- The privacy provisions relating to data matching between government agencies.
The breach must have led to (or may lead to):
- financial loss or other injury; or
- adverse effect on a right, benefit, privilege, obligation or interest; or
- Significant humiliation, significant loss of dignity, or significant injury to the feelings of the individual.
Importantly, there is no requirement to show harm in a complaint about access to or correction of personal information.
The gathering and holding of personal information on computers, data banks and other devices, whether by public authorities or private individuals or bodies, must be regulated by law. Effective measures have to be taken by States to ensure that information concerning a person’s private life does not reach the hands of persons who are not authorized by law to receive, process and use it, and is never used for purposes incompatible with the Covenant. In order to have the most effective protection of his private life, every individual should have the right to ascertain in an intelligible form, whether, and if so, what personal data is stored in automatic data files, and for what purposes. Every individual should also be able to ascertain which public authorizes or private individuals or bodies control or may control their files. If such files contain incorrect personal data or have been collected or processed contrary to the provisions of the law, every individual should have the right to request rectification or elimination. But the authorities often do not follow privacy of citizens in practice. Although the law requires warrants before law enforcement officials can search premises, this provision frequently was ignored.[19] Authorities monitored telephone conversations, facsimile transmissions, and email, text-messaging, and Internet communications.[20] Even the authority interferes on the matter family.
Protection of private life and the home may also be relevant to decisions made in planning and environmental contexts. Permitting the carrying out of an unpleasant development nearby your home.[21] Even looking look into windows or doors of any building or other accommodation without justification or without the permission of the owner, lessee or person is unlawful. [22]
Honor and Reputation
Honor and reputation are the personal integrity, respect, fame, dignity, reputation, source of pride, mark of distinction, great privilege, men’s code of integrity dignity of high position, right to tee off first, and woman’s reputation[23]. To gain an honor is very difficult, but loosing an honor is very easy. If any one “unlawfully”[24] and “arbitrary interfere”[25] on the reputation and honor, great people will be discourage on their work. The State shall, in particular, by its laws protect as best it may from unjust attack and, in the case of injustice done, vindicate the life, person, good name
and property rights of every citizen.[26]Even no child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, or to unlawful attacks on his other honor and reputation.[27] The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.[28] The law must ensure the disable person’s honor and reputation as well.
Conclusion
The privacy of the persons concerned and the confidentiality of their personal information should be respected. To the greatest extent possible, such information should not be used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected or consented to, consistent with international law, in particular international human rights law.[29] But it is authority or agent who uses the personal information ignoring the person. If government authority or agent uses private information they should acknowledge the owner to what extent, where, when and how they will use the information. Home, correspondence, honor and reputation are the properties of the owner and no one have the right to harm them. The owner have the right to ask to be protected if someone tries to harm your good name, enter your house, open your letters, or bother you or your family without a good reason.[30]That means that "The state or condition of being alone, undisturbed, or free from public attention, as a matter of choice or right; freedom from interference or intrusion”.[31]
Bibliography:
1) W. Railroad LaFave and J. H. Israel> Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
2) http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/P/Privacy.aspxEdwards
3) http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/P/Privacy.aspx
4) http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/phr2003/overview.htm
5) http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/phr2003/overview.htm
6) See Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic) ss 58(l), (s), (t)
7) Privacy and Human Rights 2003
8) www.unhchr.ch/…/23378a8724595410c12563ed004aeecd?
9) –http://www.ncbuy.com/reference/country/humanrights.html?
11) – http://www.sioux-city.org/codemaster/Title_8/48/010.html
12) http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/honor.html
13) Constitution of Ireland Article 40.3.2:
14) United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child (CRC), Article 16,1
15) [1]United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child (CRC), Article 16,2
16) Article 9 UN Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005)
17) http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/declaration/12.asp
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[1] John Adams wrote, “You have Rights antecedent to all Earthly Governments; Rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by Human Laws; Right derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.”
[2] Legal Dictionary
1 a : freedom from external (as governmental) restraint, compulsion, or interference in engaging in the pursuits or conduct of one’s choice to the extent that they are lawful and not harmful to others b : enjoyment of the rights enjoyed by others in a society free of arbitrary or unreasonable limitation or interference
2 : freedom from physical restraint
3 : freedom from subjection to the will of another claiming ownership or services
4 : liberty secured by the Fourteenth Amendment —W. Railroad LaFave and J. H. Israel>
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
In this regard, these words of Justice Dickson in R v Duarte in a criminal case involving a wire-tap:
"Privacy may be defined as the right of the individual to determine when, how, and to what extent he or she will release personal information. A reasonable expectation of privacy demands that an individual may proceed on the assumption that the state may only violate this right by recording private communications on a clandestine basis when it has established to the satisfaction of a detached judicial officer that an offence has been or is being committed and that interception of private communications stands to afford evidence of the offence."
http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/P/Privacy.aspxEdwards
,justice of Canada’s Supreme Court Defined Privacy: “An important aspect of privacy is the ability to exclude others from the premises. The right to be free from intrusion or interference is a key element of privacy.”
[4] Justice Dickson in R v Duarte in a criminal case involving a wire-tap:"Privacy may be defined as the right of the individual to determine when, how, and to what extent he or she will release personal information. A reasonable expectation of privacy demands that an individual may proceed on the assumption that the state may only violate this right by recording private communications on a clandestine basis when it has established to the satisfaction of a detached judicial officer that an offence has been or is being committed and that interception of private communications stands to afford evidence of the offence."
[5] 49, Justice Cory of Canada’s Supreme Court used these words to define privacy:"The state or condition of being alone, undisturbed, or free from public attention, as a matter of choice or right; freedom from interference or intrusion.
[6] In the 1890s, future United States Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis articulated a concept of privacy: “right to be left alone.”
[7] One of my functions under the Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic) is to provide advice on proposed legislation and the impact it may have on personal privacy.
–See Information Privacy Act 2000 (Vic) ss 58(l), (s), (t).
[8] Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights Is worded as follows: ‘”Everybody has the right to respect for his private and family life, home and his correspondence. “
[9] Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000)
Article 7 – Respect for private and family life
[10] Art.25, par.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
[11] Article 12 of the United Nation Deceleration (Doc.AS (Z), p.204; cr. Also Doc. A. 290, P.10,(1) and (Doc.B 22, p.10) (2)
[12] . Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
— Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) (1966)
[13] China Human Rights Report
The Constitution states that the “freedom and privacy of correspondence of citizens are protected by law”;
[14] – Privacy and Human Rights 2003
[15] To collect information, the agency must, in some way, ask to get it. It is not a “collection” if the agency is just given information that it did not ask for.
– Privacy and Human Rights 2003
[16] If it is publicly available information, then to disclose, permission does not needed. But if the information is confidential, then permission should be taken.
[17] Access to information can take several forms:
• giving a reasonable opportunity to look at a document, or listen to or view a recording
• giving a copy of a document
• giving a summary of the information
• providing a transcript
• giving the information orally
– Privacy and Human Rights 2003
[18] The right of research subjects to safeguard their integrity must always be respected. Every precaution should be taken to respect the privacy of the subject, the confidentiality of the patient’s information and to minimize the impact of the study on the subject’s physical and mental integrity and on the personality of the subject.
— World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki (1964/2004)
[19] MISA-Zimbabwe analysis the constitutionality of the Interception of Communications Bill 2006
The proposed law seeks to empower the chief of defense intelligence, the director-general of the Central Intelligence Organization, the Commissioner of Police and the Commissioner General of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to intercept telephonic, e-mail and cellophane messages.
[20] China Human Rights Report
The Constitution states that the “freedom and privacy of correspondence of citizens are protected by law”; however, the authorities often did not respect the privacy of citizens in practice. Although the law requires warrants before law enforcement officials can search premises, this provision frequently was ignored; moreover, the Public Security Bureau and the Procuratorate could issue search warrants on their own authority. During the year, authorities monitored telephone conversations, facsimile transmissions, e-mail, text-messaging, and Internet communications. Authorities also opened and censored domestic and international mail. The security services routinely monitored and entered residences and offices to gain access to computers, telephones, and fax machines. All major hotels had a sizable internal security presence, and hotel guestrooms were sometimes searched for sensitive materials.
–http://www.ncbuy.com/reference/country/humanrights.html?
[21] For example a nuclear plant or waste site, which will severely affect your enjoyment of your property, may be an interference with your rights under the Article 8-the right to respect for private and family life, home and correspondence.
– http://www.yourrights.org.uk/yourrights/privacy/article-8-the-right-to-respect-for-private-and-family-life-home-and-corresp.html
.
[22] It is unlawful for any person to look into windows or doors of any building or other accommodation being used as the permanent or temporary living quarters of another without justification or without the permission of the owner, lessee or person in lawful possession of the living quarters and while on the premises of the owner, lessee or person in lawful possession (Ord. 85/T-3439)
– http://www.sioux-city.org/codemaster/Title_8/48/010.html
[23] http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/honor.html
[24] The term “unlawful” means that no interference can take place except in cases envisaged by the law. Interference authorized by States can only take place on the basis of law, which itself must comply with the provisions, aims and objectives of the Covenant.
[25] The expression “arbitrary interference” is also relevant to the protection of the right provided for in article 17. In the Committee’s view the expression “arbitrary interference” can also extend to interference provided for under the law. The introduction of the concept of arbitrariness is intended to guarantee that even interference provided for by law should be in accordance with the provisions, aims and objectives of the Covenant and should be, in any event, reasonable in the particular circumstances.
[26] Constitution of Ireland Article 40.3.2:
[27] United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child (CRC), Article 16,1
[28]United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Child (CRC), Article 16,2
[29] Article 9 UN Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (2005)
[30] http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/declaration/12.asp
[31] Edwards, 49, Justice Cory of Canada’s Supreme Court used these words to define privacy.