On Friday, 6 December 2019 the Council of Europe, in cooperation with the State Inspector’s Service of Georgia, presented Georgian translation of the Handbook on European Data Protection Law and launched the HELP (Human Rights Education for Legal Professionals – the Council of Europe online training platform)online course on Data Protection and Privacy Rights. The presentation was followed by a discussion about international legal instruments in the field of data protection and their implications for Georgia.
The event was opened by Cristian Urse, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Georgia, Londa Toloraia, State Inspector of Georgia, and Sophio Kiladze, Head of Human Rights and Civil Integration Committee of the Parliament of Georgia.
Around 100 legal practitioners from private and public entities, civil society organisations, as well as representatives of Council of Europe and the French Data Protection Authority attended the meeting.
In his welcoming remarks, Cristian Urse encouraged representatives of the Parliament and the Government of Georgia to sign the Council of Europe’s modernised Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, open for signatures from 2018.
In terms of practical tools in the field of data protection, Council of Europe presented the Handbook on European Data Protection Law and the HELP online course, which includes European standards in the field of data protection as well as respective law and court practice. By translating and publishing these tools in the Georgian language, the Council of Europe aims to raise awareness among Georgia’s legal practitioners so as to attain better data protection in the country.
The presentation was followed by a discussion about international and national legal instruments in the field, including Georgia’s new draft law on data protection. The discussion also focused on challenges and best practices in implementing data protection standards in Georgia, as well as the role of legal practitioners in these matters.
The event was organised under the framework of the Council of Europe Project “Strengthening Data Protection in Georgia”, in cooperation with the State Inspector’s Service of Georgia.
