(1)
Pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC, Member States are required to provide that the transfer of personal data to a third country may take place only if the third country in question ensures an adequate level of protection and if the Member States’ laws implementing other provisions of the Directive are complied with prior to the transfer.
(2)
The Commission may find that a third country ensures an adequate level of protection. In that case, personal data may be transferred from the Member States without additional guarantees being necessary.
(5)
The Political Constitution of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, passed in 1967, does not expressly recognise the rights to privacy and the protection of personal data. However, the catalogue of fundamental rights is not a closed list since Article 72 of the Constitution provides that the listing of rights, obligations and guarantees made by the Constitution does not exclude others that are inherent to the human personality or that derive from the republican form of government. Article 1 of Act No 18.331 on the Protection of Personal Data and ‘Habeas Data’ Action of 11 August 2008 (Ley No 18.331 de Protección de Datos Personales y Acción de ‘Habeas Data’) expressly sets out that ‘the right to the protection of personal data is inherent to the human being and it is therefore included in Article 72 of the Constitution of the Republic’. Article 332 of the Constitution provides that the application of the provisions of this Constitution that acknowledge individuals’ rights as well as those awarding rights and imposing obligations on public authorities, shall not be impaired by of the lack of specific regulation; rather, it shall be based, through recourse to the underlying principles of similar laws, on the general principles of the law and generally accepted doctrines.
(6)
The legal standards for the protection of personal data in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay are largely based on the standards set out in Directive 95/46/EC and are laid down in Act No 18.331 on the Protection of Personal Data and ‘Habeas Data’ Action (Ley No 18.331 de Protección de Datos Personales y de Acción de ‘Habeas Data’) of 11 August 2008. It covers natural persons and legal persons.
(10)
The application of the legal data protection standards is guaranteed by administrative and judicial remedies, in particular, by the ‘habeas data’ action, which enables a data subject to take a data controller to court in order to enforce his right of access, rectification and deletion, and by independent supervision carried out by the supervisory authority, the Unit for the Regulation and Control of Personal Data (Unidad Reguladora y de Control de Datos Personales (URCDP)), which is invested with powers of investigation, intervention and sanction in line with Article 28 of Directive 95/46/EC, and which acts completely independently. Moreover, any interested party is entitled to seek judicial redress for compensation for damages suffered as a result of the unlawful processing of his personal data.
(13)
The Eastern Republic of Uruguay is also party to the American Convention of Human Rights (‘Pact of San José de Costa Rica) of 22 November 1969, and in force since 18 July 1978 (3). Article 11 of this Convention lays down the right to privacy and Article 30 sets out that restrictions that, pursuant to this Convention, may be placed on the enjoyment or exercise of the rights or freedoms recognised by the Convention may not be applied except in accordance with laws enacted for reasons of general interest and in accordance with the purpose for which such restrictions have been established (Article 30). Moreover the Eastern Republic of Uruguay has accepted the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Furthermore at the 1118th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies of the Council of Europe held on 6 July 2011, the Deputies invited the Eastern Republic of Uruguay to accede the Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (ETS No 108) and to its Additional Protocol (ETS No 118), after a favourable opinion of the relevant Consultative Committee (4).
(14)
The Eastern Republic of Uruguay should therefore be regarded as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data as referred to in Directive 95/46/EC.
(15)
This Decision should concern the adequacy of protection provided in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay with a view to meeting the requirements of Article 25(1) of Directive 95/46/EC. It should not affect other conditions or restrictions implementing other provisions of that Directive that pertain to the processing of personal data within the Member States.
(16)
In the interest of transparency and in order to safeguard the ability of the competent authorities in the Member States to ensure the protection of individuals as regards the processing of their personal data, it is necessary to specify the exceptional circumstances in which the suspension of specific data flows may be justified, notwithstanding the finding of adequate protection.
(18)
The Working Party on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data established under Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC has delivered a favourable opinion on the level of adequacy as regards protection of personal data which has been taken into account in the preparation of this Decision (5).
1. For the purposes of Article 25(2) of Directive 95/46/EC, the Eastern Republic of Uruguay is considered as ensuring an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the European Union.
1. Without prejudice to their powers to take action to ensure compliance with national provisions adopted pursuant to provisions other than Article 25 of Directive 95/46/EC, the competent authorities in Member States may exercise their existing powers to suspend data flows to a recipient in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay in order to protect individuals with regard to the processing of their personal data in the following cases:
For the Commission
Viviane REDING
Vice-President
(1) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31.
(2) Letter of 31 August 2011.
(3) Organisation of American States; OAS, Treaty Series, No 36, 1144 UNTS 123. http://www.oas.org/juridico/english/treaties/b-32.html
(4) Council of Europe: https://wcd.coe.int/wcd/ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=CM/Del/Dec(2011)1118/10.3&Language=lanEnglish&Ver=original&Site=CM&BackColorInternet=DBDCF2&BackColorIntranet=FDC864&BackColorLogged=FDC864
(5) Opinion 6/2010 on the level of protection of personal data in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/justice/policies/privacy/docs/wpdocs/2010/wp177_en.pdf
ANNEX
Competent supervisory authority referred to in Article 1(2) of this Decision:
Unidad Reguladora y de Control de Datos Personales (URCDP)
Andes 1365, Piso 8
Tel. + 598 2901 2929 Int. 1352
11.100 Montevideo
