Regional Meeting on Tracing Service – Restoring family Links and Data Protection

In the period from 05 to 06 November 2019, a Regional Meeting was held in Belgrade on the topics of Restoring Family Links and Data Protection in accordance with the program. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Red Cross of the Republic of North Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Romania, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Regional Office, Budapest and the International Committee of the Red Cross – Office Belgrade.

Most of the attention was given to the new Strategy on Restoring Family Links 2020-2025, prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross in cooperation with the members of the Platform for Restoring family Links, composed of 28 national societies from the Movement and the International Federation of Cross and Red Crescent. The strategy is one of the documents put forward for adoption by the General Assembly of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies next month in Geneva.

The second day of the meeting was dedicated to the topic of data protection as a general term, but also as a need for work in the area of ​​ Restoring Family Links. The workshop was facilitated by Maria-Elena Ciccolini, chief data officer at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Brussels for Europe and Central Asia. She transferred her knowledge on basics of data protection in a very practical way, but devoted most of it to the Data Protection Rules developed by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which also relate to the Restoring Family Links and data protection for people involved in this whole process.