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August 12 2013

Convention 108 Accession to Strengthen DPA's Powers

"Morocco has adopted a bill approving the Council of Europe's (CoE) Convention 108 for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data. Once ratified, Morocco will become the second non-member country of the Council of Europe to accede to Convention 108, following Uruguay. ""The Moroccan Data Protection Authority hopes that ratification will lead to amendments to the Moroccan [data protection] law,"" said Floriane Leclerc, representative for the Association of Francophone Data Protection Authorities (AFAPDP). ""It needs to be modified to reinforce the authority's ability to enforce the law, [and] its financial and functional independence"" Morocco was first invited to accede to Convention 108 on 30 January 2013. Convention 108 is the first legally binding instrument governing data protection, adopted by the CoE in 1981, establishing minimum data protection standards. The CoE is in the process of discussing proposals to modernise the Convention in light of the upcoming changes proposed by the draft EU Data Protection Regulation. Morocco's accession will bring the total number of countries party to the Convention to 47"