MANUEL DE REINSTALLATION DEPARTEMENT DE LA ... - UNHCR

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- Transit details, including routes taken, countries traversed, and duration of stay en route
to the country of asylum, types of transportation used, date and point of entry into the
country of asylum, whether entry into the country of asylum was clandestine or
authorised, experience of human rights violations in transit, details of travel from the
point of entry into the asylum country to the place where asylum is requested;
Information Generated or Obtained by UNHCR
- Information relating to examination and assessment of the refugee claim, including
opinions and instructions received from Headquarters or Branch Offices, correspondence
with UNHCR Offices and external parties, assessments of the merits of the asylum claim,
decisions on recognition of refugee status and processing of durable solutions;
- Information obtained in the course of providing protection, social and community
services to the IC, medical and counselling records, records on the treatment and
behaviour of the IC.
4. All UNHCR staff are under a duty to ensure the confidentiality of IC information.
This rule applies to all international and national staff, including interpreters, social
counsellors and medical personnel, as well as to staff of UNHCR's implementing partners. 3
The issue of confidentiality should be highlighted in the training of local and international
staff, government personnel, and NGO staff.
5. Confidentiality of IC information needs to be respected vis-à-vis third parties, as well
as in relation to communications between UNHCR offices. Communications on ICs within
UNHCR should be conducted safely. References to IC names should be avoided and a special
file reference code be used instead. 4 Also, special technological or logistical measures, such
as sealed pouches or encryption systems, should be utilised, if necessary, in co-operation with
security officers. Extra precautions are necessary when a UNHCR Office is possibly the target
of electronic or other surveillance.
6. The question of collecting, processing and storing IC information is not addressed in
these Guidelines since this is essentially a matter of UNHCR’s Archives Access Policy. 5
Suffice it to say that IC information, whether stored in physical or electronic form, should
always be subject to restricted access. Locations where IC information is stored should never
be left unsupervised during working hours. All IC files should be stored in a lockable room or
storage equipment, to which only authorised UNHCR staff have access. IC files should be
kept locked in the absence of authorised staff. 6
7. Since the Guidelines cannot foresee each and every situation that may arise in the
context of sharing IC information, UNHCR staff members should, where necessary, seek
guidance from the Department of International Protection (DIP).
3
For Staff Members see also IOM/12/98, FOM/14/98 on Security of Information of 9 February
1998.
4
See in this respect IOM/116/88 - FOM/108/88 on Communications on Sensitive Individual
Cases of 9 November 1988.
5
See for Archives Access Policy: http://www.unhcr.ch/archives/accesspolicy.pdf, see also
FOM 68/99 on Recordkeeping of Monthly Account Files of 3 August 1999 and FOM 67/2000
on Field Guides of 17 September 2000.
6
In this respect, see also UNHCR: Registration, A Practical Guide for Field Staff (1994), Part
2, paragraph 11.