Mexico City. January 28th, 2021.
The creation of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Data Protection (INAI) was an achievement from Mexican State and its society aiming to transit from the opacity of state activities, to recognize transparency and privacy protection as fundamental rights. Hence, INAI stands as a guardian to the right to information. This right must be the milestone for the activities of national institutions and the counterweight to the executive, legislative and judicial branches. The right to information is also a key for the evolution of the Mexican State, as it has been to the international context, whose tendency is the transformation of modern States into more civilized societies and less authoritarian governments. Therefore, the retrograde and imperative idea of the disappearance of INAI undermines the institutions and the democratic life of the country.
On the commemoration of the International Day for the Protection of Personal Data, that is 28 January, and to the recent proposal by the President to disappear INAI, we pronounce in its defense considering the real benefits brought since its creation and being in lockstep with the autonomous institutes created in European parliamentary systems.
Personal data have also gone until no more than 20 years ago from mere attributes of the person, to one of the main intangible assets of the global economy. But from three decades earlier several countries identified the need for their protection as a human right, which lead to the celebration of various international treaties such as the Council of Europe Convention 108 for the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Automatic Processing of Personal Data and its Additional Protocol. The power that the Mexican Constitution and its regulatory laws have given to INAI is basic for protecting those rights, either to curb or prevent violations of personal freedoms by government bodies, such as dealing with abuse in the processing of data held by private parties. The amparo trial in Mexico is a constitutional instrument to defend and protect human rights, but a strong autonomous body specialized in these matters, in addition to venting and preventing burdens on the Judicial Power, promotes the protection of data subjects, generates certainty for individuals, promotes trust in institutions, and, for this historical moment, recovers the lost time towards a «culture» of data protection facing the development of technologies based on AI.
We therefore support INAI as bedrock for transparency and guardian of personal data in order to strengthen Mexico’s institutional and democratic system.
The lawyers of personal data and information technology area at the firm are available for any questions or comments on the above.
SINCERELY,
Adolfo Athie
aathie@basham.com.mx
Renata Bueron
rbueron@basham.com.mx
Erika Rodriguez
erodriguez@basham.com.mx
Maria Fernanda Gonzalez
mgonzalez@basham.com.mx
