Mauritius seeks data protection accreditation with European Union

A Workshop on Mauritius Data Protection Accreditation with the European Union was held today at La Petite Canelle, Domaine Les Pailles in the presence of the Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Mr T. Pillay Chedumbrum, the Attorney General, Mr Y. Varma, the Ambassador of the European Union, Mr A. Mariani, and the Data Protection Commissioner, Mrs D. Madhub. The workshop was organised by the Data Protection Office, Prime Minister’s Office, in collaboration with the Delegation of the European Union to Mauritius.

Mauritius is presently seeking accreditation with the European Commission for Mauritius to be known as an “adequate country”. The endeavour will enable the country to gain recognition in the field of data protection and step up trading relations with international partners in off-shore investment services and business process outsourcing. The appropriate legislation will also promote e-government and e-commerce in Mauritius as the availability of legal protection of personal data will encourage consumers and businesses to transact online. The initiative is in line with Government’s vision to make Mauritius a regional knowledge hub and a strategic ICT destination.

To that effect, the local ICT and Data Protection legal and regulatory framework as well as licensing and regulation standards have to be reviewed and revised in line with international best practices and changes resulting from technological convergence for modern competitive ICT markets as well as in compliance with the European Union directives for data protection. An EU Consultant is currently in Mauritius to advise on the review of the ICT legislation and drafting amendments and recommendations to ensure the legislation is up to international standards.

The objective of the workshop held this morning was to enable stakeholders to express their concerns, views and proposals to the consultant on the current legal framework for data protection in Mauritius for its compliance with EU standards.

In her speech for the occasion, the Data Protection Commissioner stated that Government has the duty to regulate cyberspace. Mrs Madhub highlighted the importance of building a data protection regime fitted to our new age, adding that the focus should be on those requirements which will really enhance legal certainty. ‘Our aim should be to preserve freedom of information and data flows to create a level playing field for businesses when it comes to data protection obligations and protect the personal data of individuals’ she said.

For his part, the Attorney General said that the Law reform Commission in its last report concluded that there was a need to review the constitutional right to privacy in our constitution in order to include data protection as one of the essential components of the rights to privacy. According to Mr Varma, the Data protection rights should be built on three pillars namely the right of individual to be forgotten, transparency and greater clarity as well as privacy by default.

The Minister of Information and Communication Technology said while our society is ever more dependent on continuous and widespread use of ICT, the right to the protection of personal data is now explicitly recognised internationally as a human right. He added that the key focus of the current review of the Data Protection Act is to modernise our data protection law in order to face growing challenges of new information technologies and globalisation.