Senegal becomes 50th state to accede to Data Protection Convention

The west African nation Senegal has become the third non-European state and the 50th state to accede to the Data Protection Convention, the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe (CoE) said on Thursday.

The treaty Senegal had acceded to was the convention for the protection of individuals with regard to the automatic processing of personal data, also known as "Convention 108."

The treaty regarding Senegal will enter into force on Dec. 1, 2016, the organization said in a statement.

In addition to Senegal, the 47 member states of the CoE, as well as Uruguay and Mauritius, are already state parties to the convention.

Another three countries -- Cape Verde, Morocco and Tunisia -- have been invited to accede to the treaty.

Convention 108 grants individuals the right to the protection of their personal data and aims to prevent any abuses which may accompany the processing of this data, according to the CoE statement.

Opened for signature in 1981, the international treaty has become the backbone of personal data protection legislation in Europe and beyond. Endit