ABA ROLI Organizes Personal Data Protection Training in Serbia

February 2009 

In January 2009, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) organized a two-day training for the Serbian Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, Rodoljub Sabic, and his staff. Well-respected Slovenian experts, Natasa Pirc Musar, Slovenian commissioner of information, and Antrej Tomsic, Slovenian deputy commissioner of information, conducted the training. Musar’s lecture focused on legal matters pertaining to personal data protection (PDP), while Tomsic’s lecture focused on the information technology aspects of PDP, including biometry, video surveillance and other technical issues.

Serbia’s Law on Personal Data Protection came into effect on January 1, 2009. While the people’s right to protection of privacy was already provided under the constitution, public sector officials needed training to better protect citizens’ right to privacy. Following the training, the information commissioner’s office said that it will do everything possible to uphold citizens’ rights and to enforce the PDP law.

ABA ROLI has been working with the commissioner’s office for several years to support it as it faces staffing resource challenges. The training helped enhance the staff’s capability to identify and address PDP-related issues. On the second day of the training, a working group chaired by Commissioner Sabic discussed the development of a PDP law manual. ABA ROLI, sponsored by the United Nations Development Program, will work on creating the manual.

For more information about our work in Serbia, contact the ABA Rule of Law Initiative at <rol@staff.abanet.org>.