A/HRC/RES/42/15
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
7 October 2019
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Forty-second session
9–27 September 2019
Agenda item 3
Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council
on 26 September 2019
42/15.
The right to privacy in the digital age
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Reaffirming the human rights and fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and other
relevant international human rights instrument,
Reaffirming also the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
Reiterating the universality, indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all
human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Recalling all previous General Assembly and the Human Rights Council resolutions
on the right to privacy in the digital age, as well as other relevant resolutions,
Recalling also that business enterprises have a responsibility to respect human rights,
as set out in the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United
Nations “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework, and that the obligation and the primary
responsibility to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms lie with the
State,
Welcoming the work of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights on the right to privacy in the digital age, 1 noting with interest its reports
thereon, and recalling the expert workshop on the right to privacy in the digital age held by
the Office on 19 and 20 February 2018,
Welcoming also the work of the Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy, and taking
note of his reports, as well as of the contributions to the promotion and protection of the right
to privacy made by other special procedures of the Human Rights Council,
Taking note of the Secretary-General’s strategy on new technologies, including the
work of the High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation and its report The Age of Digital
Interdependence submitted to the Secretary-General on 10 June 2019,
1
A/HRC/39/29.
GE.19-17153(E)