Data Protection is paramount to respect and ensure human dignity and the right to privacy, a fundamental human right enshrined in Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and many other international and regional human rights instruments. 

To mark Data Protection Day on January 28th, 2022, IOM is bringing together data protection specialists from United Nations system organizations to provide insights into their privacy and data protection work. The panel discussion will revolve around internal policies and rules that United Nations system organizations have in place to protect personal data as well as challenges that they face in their day-to-day work. The panelists will further explore the numerous risks to privacy in today's increasingly digital world in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the measures that UN system organizations are implementing to manage those risks and protect privacy.

Date: 28 January 2022
Time: 14.00 CET (duration approximately one hour) 

Please send an email to dataprotectionday@iom.int to register for this event and receive information about watching this virtual panel discussion. You are also invited to send us questions that you would like to be answered by the data protection experts in advance. 

 

 

Opening Remarks  
Amy Pope

Amy Pope, Deputy Director General for Management and Reform, International Organization for Migration  

On 31 May 2021, Amy Pope was appointed as IOM’s Deputy Director General – Management and Reform, taking office on 1 September 2021. Amy Pope is a transformative leader in international migration policy with demonstrated experience improving complex organizations. She has extensive technical knowledge of migration challenges that span the breadth of IOM’s engagement, experience managing large-scale budgets and operations, and is an innovative and strategic thinker with a proven ability to translate policies into actionable steps.

Moderator  
Christina Vasala Kokkinaki

Christina Vasala Kokkinaki, Senior Legal Officer (Data Protection and Data Governance), Institutional Law and Programme Support Division, Department of Legal Affairs, International Organization for Migration

Christina Vasala Kokkinaki is a Senior Legal Officer with IOM’s Institutional Law and Programme Support, Department of Legal Affairs. Her primary focus is data protection and privacy and she provides legal advise on these issues to IOM Offices worldwide. She also works on other legal matters, such as issues concerning privileges and immunities and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA). Prior to IOM, she worked with the IFRC, the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the Permanent Mission of Greece to the UN in Geneva.

Panelists  
Mila Romanoff

Mila Romanoff, Data Policy and Governance Lead, UN Global Pulse  

Mila Romanoff, attorney by training, has over ten years of global leadership in Data and AI Governance. She has led transformative global policy developments at the United Nations as one of the key experts in emerging data and AI regulatory and policy issues. During her time with the UN, she successfully drafted the first UN enterprise framework of policies regarding data privacy and digital ethics as well as co-led the development and implementation of the data protection pillar of the first UN Data Strategy.

Isabelle Robin

Isabelle Robin, Legal Officer, Institutional Law Lead, General Legal Section of the Office of Legal Affairs, International Atomic Energy Agency

Isabelle Robin is lead Legal Officer for institutional law matters at the Office of Legal Affairs at the IAEA in Vienna. She joined the IAEA in 2012 and since then worked in different legal functions. Isabelle holds law degrees from France and the UK.

Francesco Messineo

Francesco Messineo, Legal Officer, Office of the Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs, UN Secretariat

Dr Francesco Messineo has been a legal officer at the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs in New York since 2015, serving first in the Codification Division and then in the Office of the Legal Counsel. He was previously an associate legal officer at the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, and a lecturer at Kent Law School, in Canterbury. He gained his PhD in international law at the University of Cambridge.

Christine Adam

Christine Adam, Deputy Director, Department of Legal Affairs, International Organization for Migration

Christine Adam is the Deputy Director of the Department of Legal Affairs of IOM at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.  In IOM’s Department of Legal Affairs, she has held different positions, covering most area of legal work, including constitutional and mandate issues, support to governing bodies, data protection, as well as formal legal advice on organizational policies in areas of migration governance and humanitarian action. Prior to IOM, Christine, a German national, was a civil servant in the German public administration.

Giovanna Beaulieu

Giovanna Beaulieu, Senior Legal Officer, Office of the Legal Adviser/Office of Legal Services, International Labour Organization   

Giovanna Beaulieu joined the ILO in 2000 and since then her role has expanded from providing legal advice and support in the context of commercial transactions and institutional matters to her present responsibilities that include reviewing and revising internal policies, as well as providing legal support towards their operationalization, representing the ILO in inter-agency working groups and negotiating complex arrangements with external parties, all with a particular focus on accountability and transparency.  The area of data protection is also under Giovanna’s direct responsibility. She recently gained her certification as a Certified Information Privacy Professional/Europe (CIPP/E) and Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM) through IAPP.