The new data protection convention 108+ and its importance for Asia

Abstract Over 40 years in the making, a new global data privacy agreement will soon come into force. The Council of Europe’s 1981 Convention for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to the Processing of Personal Data (Convention 108) will be superseded by a ‘modernized’ Convention ‘108+’. The Parties to Convention 108, as a potentially global treaty, include three countries from Latin America, and five from Africa, but none from Asia, the continent with the next highest concentration of data privacy laws. This article considers which of the 18 Asian countries with data privacy laws could accede to 108+. Each country is assessed against five impediments to accession: Jurisdictions which are not States; States which are not democratic; Laws of inadequate scope; Laws lacking an independent and effective data protection authority; and Laws with substantive provisions falling short of 108+ ‘accession standards’. The analysis shows that seven countries deserve consideration, but only if the ‘accession standards’ for 108+ become more flexible.