The Jamaica Gleaner published an article on September 29, 2020, about Holness’ plan to pass the NIDS Bill into Law by December 2020. Here’s a summary:
- Prime Minister Andrew Holness is hopeful that the National Identification System (NIDS) will become law by the year’s end.
- In Parliament, Holness stated that the NIDS Policy Committee along with the Legislation Committee will review the bill before submission to Parliament for tabling.
- He also continued by saying that once the bill is tabled, a join-select committee would be established to navigate deliberations to arrive at a satisfactory National Identification and Registration Bill.
- He stated that both private and public sector stakeholders will be allowed to comment on the proposed statute during the deliberation process of the committee.
- The 2017 NIDS Act, which NIDS was to be based, was passed without being referred to a joint select committee for deliberations and was declared by the courts and unconstitutional in 2019.
- Holness commented that he was fully cognizant of and sensitive to the legitimate concerns individuals have regarding data protection and privacy.
- This is why the Government is committed to putting in place the legislative, technological, and independent oversight mechanisms to ensure rights are respected and protected. An online forum on NIDSFACTS.COM will be provided for Jamaicans to comment on the Bill.
Source: jamaica-gleaner.com
Contributed by Racquel Bailey from Jamaica. Racquel is a member of our Women in InfoSec Caribbean (WISC) initiative on Discord. WISC is a non-profit initiative supporting Caribbean women and girls to develop a career in Information Security. Learn more about WISC at wiscaribbean.org.