Ms Elsa MEIN, Chair of the Committee of Convention 108 (‘T-PD’), took part in the 17th UniDem Seminar organised by the Venice Commission in cooperation with the Ministry of digital transition and administrative reform of Morocco. It is entitled: "Digital transformation and artificial intelligence : rules and applications". The regional seminar took place in Rabat and online on 21 and 22 November. Ms Mein took part in a session dedicated to “respect for privacy and data protection” and addressed the seminar on the issue of the legal framework provided by Convention 108+ as regard AI and new technologies in order to respect the fundamental rights of citizens. Mr Patrick Penninckx, head of the Information Society Department of the Directorate General Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe, also took part in the Seminar on a panel dedicated to proportionality and transparency of measures taken by public administration in the context of digital transformation and citizens' right to appeal: what impacts and what case law ? The seminar gathered senior public officials from the Southern Mediterranean (Jordan, Lebanon Morocco, Palestine*) who exchanged their experiences with European experts.
Morocco has been a Party to the Council of Europe Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to the automatic processing of personal data, known as ‘Convention 108’, since September 2019.
As a reminder, Convention 108/108+ is the unique and global tool of regulatory harmonisation and convergence re-instating the human being in her/his position of subject, and not a mere object, of algorithmic deduction, control or surveillance. The modernised Convention, known as ‘Convention 108+’ aims at facilitating data flows and respecting human dignity in the digital age. With its technologically-neutral, principles-based approach, its transposable and easy to adapt scheme, Convention 108 has imposed itself as a unique instrument creating the conditions necessary for a digital society based on trust and respect for human dignity and the human rights of all. The modernisation of Convention 108 pursues two main objectives: to deal with challenges resulting from the use of new information and communication technologies and to strengthen the Convention’s effective implementation. The Convention currently has 55 countries and some 40 observers from all over the world.
