A/HRC/43/52 I. Overview of activities 1. Since March 2019, the Special Rapporteur has examined challenges arising from new technologies, undertaken official and “non-official” country visits, promoted the protection of the right to privacy, advocated privacy principles, contributed to international events on privacy, raised awareness of the right to privacy and effective remedies and reported on alleged violations. 2. In October 2019, the Special Rapporteur submitted a report to the General Assembly containing a recommendation on the use of health-related data (A/74/277). Communications to Member States 3. Throughout the year, letters and statements were issued in which matters concerning practices that appeared to be inconsistent with the right to privacy were raised. They included communications with the Government of Saudi Arabia between February and June 2019 concerning the use of technology and the infringement of women’s rights to privacy and a full set of recommendations to the Government of Malta in December 2019 and January 2020 in connection with proposals for reforming oversight of the security services. The Special Rapporteur is pleased to note that he is also increasingly receiving requests from Governments to assist them in drafting new privacy laws, including on both data protection and surveillance carried out by law enforcement and intelligence services. Task force on corporations 4. From 16 to 18 September, the Special Rapporteur organized the second task force meeting of 2019, held in Brussels, on the use of personal data by corporations, following the first meeting, held in Malta in March. The event was attended by partner civil society organizations and leading corporations, including Huawei, Deutsche Telekom, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Google. It included discussions of best practices and common challenges on topics such as corporate transparency, artificial intelligence, the use of personal data and privacy and children. Task force on privacy and health-related data 5. The recommendation on the use of health-related data made to the General Assembly was developed with specialized input and extensive global consultation and has been well received. The updated version of the recommendation and a detailed explanatory note are available online.1 Task force on privacy and personality 6. Following its release to the Human Rights Council in March, consultations on the preliminary report entitled “Privacy: a gender perspective” were opened. Stakeholder feedback was instrumental during a consultation event organized in New York with the support of New York University, Facebook and others on 30 and 31 October. 7. The Special Rapporteur also provided input on privacy and gender to events organized by the United Nations Development Programme in June and October and to international forums. Children and privacy 8. The Special Rapporteur is working independently and in collaboration with the Interdepartmental Committee on the Convention on the Rights of the Child to develop new guidelines to protect children’s privacy. He participated in a consultation event held in London on 7 and 8 October on the general comment being prepared by the Committee. He gave a briefing to the Committee in Geneva on 31 January 2020. 1 2 See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Privacy/SR_Privacy/MediTASFINALExplanatory Memoradum1.pdf.