Submission 17
Sent: Monday, February 6, 2023
To: ConstitutionalReform
Subject: Contributions to Barbados' Constitutional Reform Process
Dear CRC,
I've participated in a few of CRCs workshops now and studied about 42 country constitutions Some of these are mature developed countries some rather young. Some of them have, particularly in their rights sections, concepts like, ' every person born in the country ... must learn to play an instrument ...'. Every citizen must have a musical instrument under their belts. Pung down the constitutions I really looked at some studies on what the results were of these kinds of developmental priories I wanted to know why they would put that in the Constuon It turns out that the people who have trained in learning and playing a musical instrument from 'little' through to adulthood, have higher than normal inclination or capacity to contribute socially, economically to their environments...and It occurs to me that we don't really have a developmental bent of our people...when it comes to our constitutions. Must we wait until we are 'matured' as a country to start looking at how we can beer our people?
Here are a few more submissions...previously submitted last year:
These suggestions are in no particular order.
A main concern is our, personal, public data - its ownership and protection, is articulated at the bottom, but there are equally pressing issues needing to be fleshed out in the Constitution.
Thoughts and references are noted in brackets and italics.
Values
Considerations for main values of the Republic's Constitution:
Our Republic, Barbados is a sovereign and democratic state founded on:
values of human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedom.
Objective of our political system
The principal objective of the political system is to establish an inclusionary democracy by providing increasing opportunities for the participation of citizens, and their organisations in the management and decision-making processes of the Republic, with particular emphasis on those areas of decision-making that directly affect their wellbeing.
Citizen's Duty to improve environment
Every citizen has a duty to participate in activities designed to improve the environment and protect the health of the nation, at 18 contributing a year of training/service to Barbados.
Miscellaneous but essential issues for inclusion
Indefinite confinement of dangerous sexual offenders
Restrictions on the use of genetically modified organisms in agriculture
Abolition of the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse
No person may serve for more than 4 terms of office in the political arena. And pensions are given on completion of 3 terms in office.
There shall be no impingement on the female person of any monetary enticement to reproduce the Barbadian population.
There shall be no sale of human parts or person here.
Marriage will have the same requirements and results when the two people entering into the contract are of the same sex or of different sexes.
Plural Executive
(Plural executive is a novel feature of Swiss political system, i.e., no single person is the head of the government, it is a collegian body known as Federal Council which exercises executive
authority. It consists of seven members elected by the Federal Assembly for a period of four years. No single exalted individual holds distinct position as President or Prime Minister.
Presidency rotates among all the members of Federal Council turn by turn. Certain features of the Federal Council have resemblance with the characteristics of parliamentary form while in some other ways, it is closer to presidential system. To illustrate, all the members of the Council are generally elected from the members .. They have to resign from its membership ... ).
The Barbados constitution provides for a collegial/plural executive. All executive powers of the Republic are exercised by a seven-member Government. All the seven members collectively exercise executive power.
Data privacy protection and local ownership of citizens data
*The data privacy legislation regulates data protection principles, the legal bases for processing personal data, rules around special category data and transparency requirements. All public personal data belonging to citizens of Barbados is private, is located and owned in the physical territory of Barbados.
(Sweden's Personal Data Act (1998:204) was repealed in 2018 and replaced by the Swedish Data Protection Act (2018:218) and the Swedish Data Protection Regulation (2018:219) to govern alongside the EU's GDPR.)
Reference
the Debt Recovery Act 1988,
the Credit Information Act 1973,
the Patient Data Act (2008:355),
the Criminal Data Act 2018 and
the Electronic Communications Act 2003.
DATA PROTECTION NEEDS TO BE ARTICULATED IN THE CONSTITUTION MORE ACUTELY. Here I've referenced 6 countries that work on data ownership, protection and security.
There needs to be laws covering general rules for data privacy and protection, rules for data processing, rules for cross-border transfers, transparency, rules for collecting data in "good faith" and more.
(In September 2020, a revision of the Swiss FADP was passed, which will take effect in 2022. While the new version of the Act is similar to the GDPR in many ways, it will allow organizations to process data without the subject's consent as long as it does not violate "the personality of the individual." Also unlike the GDPR, breaches are only required to be reported if they pose a "high risk" with a deadline of "as soon as possible" rather than a strict 72 hours).
Government WebsiteFederal Law on Data Protection 1993
Data Protection Ordinance 2007Swiss Data Protection Act 2018FADP 2020
Thailand
The Thai Cabinet is in the midst of drafting and approving the country’s first comprehensive data privacy and protection law.
The Personal Data Protection Bill, as it may be called, requires consent from data subjects prior to collection, imposes penalties for improper practices and calls for instating a commission to regulate compliance.
In the meantime, Thailand’s data privacy law is pieced together with provisions from the Constitution, the Credit Bureau Act 2002, the Child Protection Act 2003, the National Health Act 2007 and more.
For more information:
Draft BillThailand Constitution 2017Credit Bureau Act 2002
National Health Act 2007
United Kingdom
The U.K. is currently regulated by the Data Protection Act 2018 which incorporates the EU GDPR and supplements its provisions.
The Data Protection Act 2018 focuses significantly on data subject rights, “special category” personal data, data protection fees, data protection offenses, consent from children and enforcement.
The U.K. will no longer be an EU member state as of March 29, 2019. However, there has been no word that the U.K. will change its existing data privacy laws.
For more information:
Data Protection Act 2018
United States
There is no single overarching data privacy legislation in the U.S. Instead, the country follows a sectoral approach to data privacy, relying on a patchwork of sector-specific laws and state laws.
In fact, the U.S. relies on a “combination of legislation, regulation and self-regulation” rather than government intervention alone. There are approximately 20 industry- or sector-specific federal laws, and more than 100 privacy laws at the state level (in fact, there are 25 privacy-related laws in California alone).
The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) gives residents of California four rights that give them more power over their personal data: right to notice, right to access, right to opt in (or out) and right to equal services. Any organization that collects the personal data of California residents, not just businesses located in the state, must comply with CCPA. Read more about complying with the CCPA here.
On January 1, 2023, the Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA) will take effect in Virginia. Under the law, companies that conduct business in the state must get permission from users process their data. It also gives consumers the rights to view, obtain, delete and correct their data.
Complying with regulations is only one piece of the data protection puzzle. Download this cheat sheet to see the 6 other Steps to Address a Data Breach.
The U.S. also has a special “privacy shield” agreements with both the EU and Switzerland.
For more information:
California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018Privacy Act 1974Privacy Protection Act 1980Health Insurance…Act 1996
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act 1999
Fair Credit Reporting Act 2018
EU-U.S./Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield
Uruguay
Data privacy in Uruguay is governed under the “Data Protection Act”, which is made up of three parts: Law No. 18,331 on Personal Data Protection and Habeas Data Action 2008 (the primary piece of legislation), Decree No. 664/008 and Decree No. 414/009 (two clarifying decrees).
The Data Protection Act is extremely similar to the GDPR and outlines several principles for those collecting and processing personal data, including: the principle of legality, the principle of truthfulness and veracity, the purpose of limitation principle, the principle of prior consent, the principle of data security, the principle of confidentiality and the principle of liability.
Venezuela
There is no general legislation for data privacy and protection in Venezuela. Instead, personal and private data is governed by a patchwork of federal, sector-specific and industry-specific laws.
The primary piece of legislation is Article 28 of the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 2009. According to the Constitution, there are a set of principles that every entity, person or otherwise, must guarantee if they are to collect or manage personal information.
The principles, collectively called the ‘Principles’, are the principle of free will, legality, purpose and quality, temporality or conservation, accuracy and self-determination, security and confidentiality, guardianship and responsibility.
For more information:
Venezuela Constitution (2009)
Studying these Constitutional reforms from variously progressive countries, this is my contribution to the Reform process of our new republic.
Thanking you for the opportunity, I have affixed my telephone number should any clarification be needed.
