A/HRC/55/46 I. Introduction 1. Human beings have always been an end in themselves: they are the raison d’être of States and of national and international society.1 2. Fundamental rights are the highest principles of any legal system. States must set out and establish the conditions and the necessary framework for the recognition and effective enjoyment of these rights in any space or territory where human beings are active or present. 3. The law must always be an effective means for treating human beings as an end in themselves. All persons, both governors and governed, and in all contexts, whether physical or virtual, must pursue their full realization. 4. As far as the Human Rights Council is concerned, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has already recognized that the right to privacy is an expression of human dignity and is linked to the protection of autonomy and personal identity.2 5. The Global Privacy Assembly has recognized that the rights to privacy and data protection buttress democratic processes. It has also observed that robust data protection laws place a reasonable limit on various negative situations, such as intrusive government influence on private life, undue external influence, data profiling, automated decisions and discrimination, which technologies such as artificial intelligence can amplify.3 6. The Joint Statement on Privacy and Democratic Rights, signed by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, 4 recognizes that the rights to privacy and personal data protection specifically and mutually support equality and democratic values and provide a guarantee for the respect of other fundamental rights and freedoms. 7. The digital age, regardless of the great benefits it brings for the development of humanity, must not diminish the rights and dignity of human beings. 8. At the 45th session of the Global Privacy Assembly, held in 2023, privacy authorities recognized that developments in technology, innovation and digitalization lead to new activities and business models which increasingly rely on processing of large volumes of personal data in new and progressively more complex ways. 5 They also noted that the exchange of data by States and individuals and various forms of data processing are increasing daily through the use of technologies whose capacities are growing exponentially and dynamically. 9. Privacy authorities also expressed concern that certain technological developments can pose new challenges for the implementation of data protection and privacy laws and can cause significant negative effects, such as discriminatory and biased outcomes for individuals, or affect their ability to exercise their data protection and privacy rights. This concern is particularly acute in relation to more intrusive processing of personal data, including sensitive data, especially those of children and vulnerable people. 6 10. In this context, data subjects find themselves in a position of defencelessness owing to their limited knowledge of the use that third parties make of information concerning them, since in practice they are unable to follow up on or monitor this use. This has repercussions for their ability to control their data – the essence of the fundamental right to personal data protection. 1 2 3 4 5 6 2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A/HRC/48/31, para. 7. See https://globalprivacyassembly.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Resolution-on-privacy-as-afundamental-human-right-2019-FINAL-EN.pdf. See https://priv.gc.ca/en/opc-news/speeches/2023/js-dc_20231208/. See https://globalprivacyassembly.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/3.-Resolution-Achieving-globalDP-standards.pdf. Ibid. GE.24-00091