SaveSaveSaveA clear consensus emerged that the general and technologically neutral nature of the Convention’s provisions should be maintained, that the coherence and compatibility with other relevant legal frameworks should be preserved, such as the one of the European Union, and that the Convention’s open character which gives it a unique potential of universal standard should be reaffirmed.

Similar updates of data protection legal frameworks were also undertaken within the same period by the OECD and the EU, and synchronization with the EU reform enabled to maintain the consistency between both frameworks.

The modernisation of the Convention 108 was felt necessary, on the one hand to better address challenges resulting from the use of new information and communication technologies, and on the other hand to strengthen the implementation of Convention 108.

The modernisation work started with the preparation of a report aimed at identifying areas where Convention 108 would need to be modernised to address new challenges, and a multi-stakeholder consultation was launched by the Secretary General on the occasion of the 5^th edition of data protection day and the 30^th anniversary of Convention 108 on 28 January 2011. This public consultation allowed interested persons and institutions to send their comments, thoughts and ideas on the modernisation of Convention 108.

The first phase of the work was entrusted to the Committee of Convention 108 and an agreement on the proposals was reached at the 29^th Plenary meeting of the Committee on 27-30 November 2012.

Those proposals were subsequently examined in 2013 and 2014 by an intergovernmental committee (ad hoc committee on data protection – CAHDATA) and its work was finalised at a last meeting on 15-16 June 2016.

The last phase of the work was carried out at the level of the Committee of Ministers. The Committee of Ministers and its group of Rapporteurs on legal cooperation (GR-J) reviewed the CAHDATA proposals from 2016 to 2018 and adopted the amending protocol on 18 May 2018.

CAHDATA

Set up by the Committee of Ministers under Article 17 of the Statute of the Council of Europe and in accordance with Resolution CM/Res(2011)24 on intergovernmental committees and subordinate bodies, their terms of reference and working methods, the Ad hoc Committee on Data protection (CAHDATA) was responsible with the modernisation of Convention 108 and its Protocol.

Before CAHDATA