ECHR: The DNA databank violates Art. 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The Guardian Daily reported “The fingerprints and DNA samples of more than 857,000 innocent citizens who have been arrested or charged but never convicted of a criminal offence now face deletion from the national DNA database after a landmark ruling by the European court of human rights in Strasbourg.”

ECHR now judges the sensitive personal data shall not be collected and processed by the governments without the specified purposes. The reasons of this judgment may be useful to those (for example, the (ex-) Honorable Judges in Taiwan who thought public welfare plays the “only” role) who oppose the idea that fingerprints database should be limited.

As the ECHR states:

“(Para)125. In conclusion, the Court finds that the blanket and indiscriminate nature of the powers of retention of the fingerprints, cellular samples and DNA profiles of persons suspected but not convicted of offences, as applied in the case of the present applicants, fails to strike a fair balance between the competing public and private interests and that the respondent State has overstepped any acceptable margin of appreciation in this regard. Accordingly, the retention at issue constitutes a disproportionate interference with the applicants' right to respect for private life and cannot be regarded as necessary in a democratic society. This conclusion obviates the need for the Court to consider the applicants' criticism regarding the adequacy of certain particular safeguards, such as too broad an access to the personal data concerned and insufficient protection against the misuse or abuse of such data.

(Para)126. Accordingly, there has been a violation of Article 8 of the Convention in the present case.”

I insist that the human dignity should always be much more important than rescues that are sugar-coated by so called public welfares and national security.