African accession to Council of Europe Privacy Convention 108

Abstract

The past five years have seen increasing interest by African states to request for accession and subsequently accede to the Council of Europe Convention 108 on automatic processing of personal data and its Additional Protocol. Apart from Uruguay, a Latin American country, the remaining requests and accessions to Convention 108 by non-European states originate from the African continent. This development signifies the maturity of privacy policies in Africa. Overall, it is an important step towards the realisation of a global data privacy treaty as Convention 108 is the only international legally binding instrument that grants individuals the right to the protection of their personal data and is open for accession by any country around the globe. This article discusses this watershed moment for the evolution of African privacy policies.