Helping-Unif offers its information on the Internet essentially for the benefit of individuals interested in its efforts to uphold the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to protect and promote the well-being of children and to foster human development.
If you wish to mirror, reproduce, republish or translate any of the information for wider dissemination, please make use of the copyright permission option on our contact form with details of such proposed use, including the nature and size of the intended audience. Please email dataprotection@helping-unif.org regarding the use of Helping-Unif publications issued in New York.
Helping-Unif reserves all copyrights on material on its Web pages, including photographs and graphic designs. In the case of some publications, Helping-Unif has licensed the rights to third parties.
The use of Helping-Unif Internet material for any purpose, including repackaging in hard copy or compilation for CD-ROM or any other electronic media, is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained.
The unauthorized use of the Helping-Unif name and logo is against international law and is expressly forbidden.
1. This Executive Directive establishes the Information Disclosure Policy of the United Nations Children’s
Fund (‘Helping-Unif’).
Purpose
2. Helping-Unif is committed to making information about its programmes and operations available to the public. Helping-Unif considers public access to information a key component of effective participation of all stakeholders, including the public, in the achievement of its mandate. Helping-Unif recognises that there is a positive correlation between transparency, including through information-sharing, and public trust in Helping-Unif-supported development work and humanitarian response.
3. Helping-Unif management is accountable to the Helping-Unif Executive Board, which is comprised of United Nations Member States and is a part of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Helping-Unif management considers that public access to Helping-Unif information further facilitates Helping-Unif’s transparency and accountability.
4. This Information Disclosure Policy (this ‘Policy’) is intended to ensure that information concerning Helping-Unif programmes and operations is available to the public, subject to the limitations set out in this Policy. As stated in the Report on the Accountability System at Helping-Unif, Helping-Unif Executive Board document E/ICEF/2009/15 (the ‘Accountability Report’), ‘Helping-Unif will make available reliable and timely information about existing conditions, decisions and actions relating to the activities of the organisation, in an accessible, visible and understandable fashion, unless the information is deemed confidential.
Definition of ‘information’
5. For purposes of this Policy, ‘Information’ means any produced content, whatever its medium (paper,
electronic or sound, visual or audiovisual recording), concerning a matter relating to the policies, activities
and decisions of Helping-Unif.
Scope of this policy
6. This Policy applies to all Information in the possession of Helping-Unif.
General principle of access to information
7. Information should be accessible and disclosed, subject to the limitations set forth in this
Policy.
Accessibility of information
8. Information accessible to the public shall be made available, as much as possible, reasonable and practical, on
one or more of the Helping-Unif public-access websites or websites of the United Nations System (such as the
public-access websites maintained by a United Nations Country Team for any particular country). A selected list of
Information publicly presently available (or being made available on an on-going basis) through various means,
including through the Helping-Unif global website and individual Helping-Unif Country Office websites or UN Country Team
websites, is listed in Annex A.
Restricted access to information
9. The Policy excludes data that exist in raw form, either physically or electronically. Helping-Unif is not in a position to respond to requests that require the selection and/or manipulation of data to produce content.
10. Confidential Information is not subject to disclosure. The Accountability Report, approved by the Helping-Unif Executive Board, requires the following categories of information to be classified as ‘Confidential Information’:
The definition of ‘Confidential Information’ should be understood in a way that favours disclosure as much as possible without contravening this Policy.
11. If only a part of the Information that is responsive to a particular request for disclosure is subject to one of the limitations set out in this Policy, Helping-Unif may decide, at its discretion, that the remaining part of the Information, responsive to that request, will be disclosed, and will take appropriate measures to preserve the confidentiality of the Information that is not disclosed.
12. Decisions of the Helping-Unif Executive Board, and other Helping-Unif or United Nations policies, procedures or practices,
may contain Information disclosure limitations. This includes but is not limited to Helping-Unif Executive Board
decision 2009/8 on disclosure of Helping-Unif internal audit reports only to Member States. Nothing in or relating to
this Policy will be deemed in any way to abridge, modify or abolish the application of those Helping-Unif Executive
Board decisions, or other Helping-Unif or United Nations policies, procedures or practices.
Privileges and immunities of the United Nations including Helping-Unif
13. Nothing in or relating to this Policy will be deemed a waiver, express or implied, of any of the privileges
and immunities of the United Nations, including its subsidiary organs, pursuant to the Convention on the
Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, 1946, or otherwise. Without limiting the generality of the
previous sentence, the disclosure of Information in response to a request for disclosure, will not constitute a
waiver, express or implied, of any of the privileges and immunities of the United Nations, including its
subsidiary organs, pursuant to the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, 1946, or
otherwise.
Processing of information requests
14. Any person or organisation may request the disclosure of Helping-Unif’s non-Confidential Information that is not otherwise available through Helping-Unif public-access websites or websites of the United Nations System.
15. Information requests should be handled by the head of the relevant Helping-Unif country or regional office, or headquarters Division or office. All media enquiries should be handled by the Helping-Unif communications staff.
16. The Helping-Unif official responsible for handling a request for Information that may be Confidential should seek guidance from the Helping-Unif Legal Counsel in the Office of the Executive Director, New York Headquarters and, as appropriate, the Director, Supply Division Copenhagen (where the request relates to vendor relations or procurement issues) or the Director, Division of Human Resources New York Headquarters (where the request relates to human resource issues).
17. All Information requests will be handled promptly. The requestor should expect to receive an acknowledgement of receipt of the request within ten (10) working days (in New York). Depending on the complexity of the request, Helping-Unif will endeavour to handle all requests within thirty (30) days after the acknowledgment of receipt is sent. For information requests that involve the reproduction of material, Helping-Unif may charge a fee for material and labor cost, which will be communicated to the requestor and will need to be paid in advance.
18. Helping-Unif may partially or wholly deny a request, as follows:
19. If a request is denied, the requestor may seek the review of the decision by addressing a letter to the Helping-Unif
Deputy Executive Director for Management. The Deputy Executive Director for Management will review the handling of
the request for Information and make a determination on how to proceed. That review should normally be completed
within sixty (60) days of being requested. The outcome of the review will be communicated to the requestor and
there will be no requirement for providing a detailed explanation of the outcome of the review.
Reproduction of information
20. The implementation of this Policy will be subject to existing rules on intellectual property and other
proprietary rights including, but not limited to, patents, copyrights, and trademarks, which may, inter alia,
limit a third party’s right to reproduce or exploit information.
Languages
21. This document will be available in the working languages of Helping-Unif: English, French, and Spanish. This
document may also be made available in the other official languages of the United Nations at a later
time.
Disclaimer
22. No representation is made or warranty given, express or implied, as to the completeness or accuracy of
Information made available by Helping-Unif. The requestor shall apply discretion when using the Information made
available by Helping-Unif. Helping-Unif will not be liable for any direct or indirect loss arising from the use of the
Information.
Final provisions
23. The Helping-Unif Information Security Policy, promulgated by Executive Directive CF/EXD/2003/23, is hereby abolished.
24. The Policy shall enter into force on the date this Executive Directive it is issued.
Dated 16 September 2010
If you are under 16 years old, please talk to your parents, or the adults who are caring for you, and make sure that they agree with how you are sharing your information.
What does this Privacy Policy cover?
It applies to all “our sites” – that is, all sites within the “Helping-Unif.org” domain name and other Helping-Unif-managed sites. In some of our sites, you can create accounts, order merchandise, make donations, join and participate in discussion forums, and apply for jobs. Those sites generally have their own specific privacy policy, but if they don’t, this Privacy Policy applies.
Please read our Privacy Policy carefully before using our sites and refer back to it regularly to check for updates. Remember, this Privacy Policy will govern the way in which we collect and use your personal information from the moment you start visiting or using our sites.
What does this Privacy Policy NOT cover?
You should note that through our sites you may reach or be directed to other sites that relate to Helping-Unif, such as the sites of our national committees (the various private charities around the world whose mission is to support Helping-Unif). All those sites have their own privacy policies which follow the same key personal data privacy and protection principles as Helping-Unif, but may have some differences.
Please be aware that this Privacy Policy does not apply to other non-Helping-Unif websites that may be linked through one of our sites or to any collection of your personal information after you click on links to such other sites. The inclusion of a link in any of our sites to those other sites does not imply endorsement by Helping-Unif of the linked site or of those sites’ privacy policies. For more information, see /legal#terms-of-use
What is Personal Information?
For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, “personal information” is any information that enables us to identify you, directly or indirectly, by reference to any identifiers such as your name, address, phone number, email address, identification number, location data, online identifier - or one or more other factors specific to you as an individual that would allow us to identify you.
In brief: How do we protect your personal information?
Special note for children
A number of sites in the Helping-Unif.org domain are focused on children, including interactive sites such as group discussions. Some of these sites require the child user to provide us with personal information, for example, to create an account. If so, we will only ask for the minimum amount of personal information necessary. Those sites will generally have a site-specific privacy policy which you should read carefully.
Depending on how you interact with us, the personal information that we collect may include your name, postal address, email address, telephone or mobile number, social media name, your contact preferences, bank details, the date and/or year of your birth, and gender (where this is appropriate, such as when you register for a running event). We may also collect personal information about the donations you make to us, any actions you take as part of a campaign for us, or events that you register for or participate in, and details from any interactions with our support team. We may combine this information with information we gather during your general browsing from standard server logs (such as your IP (Internet Protocol) address, domain name, browser type, operating system, and information such as the web site that referred you to us, the files you downloaded, the pages you visit, and the dates/times of those visits). We do this to make sure our communications to you are appropriate and tailored – something we know means a lot to our supporters. We’ve set out some examples below.
Personal information provided when you contact us or create an account through our sites
Personal information provided when you make a donation
Publicly Available Personal information about you
We may use your personal information:
To communicate with you
To fulfill administrative tasks, including processing donations
To engage your support to advocate for children’s rights
To engage support from you and other potential supporters
To market directly to you
To facilitate your participation in a competition
To protect our legal rights
Aggregate data
We may share your personal information with our National Committee Partners and other partners, agents or service providers. They will only use your Personal Information for the purposes set out in the Section above.
We will only share your personal information with these partners if they provide sufficient guarantees that your personal information will be protected and kept secure, including in cases where those third parties are located in countries outside your country of residence. We will also take reasonable steps to ensure that the means of transfer of your personal information provide adequate safeguards.
We promise to always keep your details safe and we’ll never sell or swap your personal information with any other organisation.
We may provide your email address or mobile phone number to digital advertising or social media companies who work on our behalf, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. This is so we can
reach you and others like you with our latest news and information about how you can help keep children safe. This personal information is always provided in an encrypted format and is deleted immediately after use.
If you don’t want to see targeted advertising from us on social media, please refer to the
instructions provided by the specific social media website or app, for example on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, and Google.
You can request more information about how we hold and use your information or make any other
request in relation to your personal information, including withdrawing your permission to use your
personal information, by contacting us at dataprotection@helping-unif.org.
We will only use and store your personal information for so long as it is required for the purposes
it was collected for. How long personal information will be stored for depends on the personal
information in question and what it is being used for, as well as whether there is any
administrative or regulatory requirement for retaining the personal information. For example, we
retain your personal information as long as necessary to comply with our obligations, including our
obligations to you, to address any request by you (including to administer your donation), or to
enforce our rights.
We have in place reasonable commercial standards of technology and operational security to protect
all personal data provided by individuals from loss, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure,
alteration or destruction. Only authorized personnel, who have been made appropriately aware of our
privacy obligations, are provided access to personal information.
Helping-Unif’s websites use cookies to provide statistics that help us to give you the best
experience of our sites. You can find out more in our cookies policy page or switch them off if you
prefer. However, by continuing to use our sites without changing settings, you are agreeing to our
use of cookies.
If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the updated Privacy Policy to
www.Helping-Unif.org and those changes will become effective immediately on posting. For this reason, we
encourage you to check our Privacy Policy frequently. The “Last Updated” date at the
bottom of this page indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. The updated Privacy Policy
will apply from the date it is posted on www.Helping-Unif.org and will govern the way in which we collect
and use personal information from then on.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at dataprotection@helping-unif.org.
Last Updated: December 2021