The Republic of Mauritius today became the second non-European state – after Uruguay in 2013 – to ratify the Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, also known as “Convention 108”, and its Additional Protocol, taking the total number of states parties to the treaty to 49.
The Privacy Commissioner of the Republic of Mauritius, Drudeisha Madhub, deposited the accession documents in the presence of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, during an international conference held in Strasbourg under the theme “Convention 108: from a European reality to a global treaty”.
The conference brings together representatives of governments, data protection authorities, privacy NGO´s, academics and experts from all over the world to discuss the role the Data Protection Convention can play to create common rules to protect personal data at global level and the challenges it faces.
Speakers include Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy Joseph Cannataci, European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli, and Chair of the convention´s committee Jean-Philippe Walter.
Another three countries – Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia – have already been invited to accede to the treaty and will most likely be the next countries to become parties. Cape Verde has taken the first steps to accede to the convention.
“Convention 108” is the only existing international treaty which grants individuals the right to the protection of their personal data, aiming also to prevent any abuses which may accompany the processing of these data. Being open to signature by any country, it is the only binding standard which has the potential to be applied worldwide, providing legal certainty and predictability in international personal data transfers.
The text is currently being updated to ensure that its data protection principles are still valid for new tools and practices.
- Secretary General´s speech
- Programme
- More information
- Press release on Mauritius joins the Data Protection Convention - “Convention 108”
- An interview with Joseph Cannataci, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy
- An interview with Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of 'EPIC'
Convention 108 being ratified by the privacy commissioner for Mauritius, Drudeisha Madhub