A one-day International seminar on "Improvement of legal regulation on data protection of Belarus” was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe / European Union Joint Project “Enhance the right to data protection”, implemented under the CoE / EU Programme Partnership for Good Governance (PGG) on 19 September 2017 in Minsk.
The objective of the seminar was to present to and discuss with representatives of all national administrations concerned the expert analysis of a concept paper for a draft law on data protection, in the Republic of Belarus. In presence of the Director of the National Centre of Legislation and Legal Research of the Republic of Belarus, Vadim Ipatov, and of its Deputy-Director, Vladimir Jevniak, the project of the future law was introduced. A particular emphasis was put on the current legal situation that led to the project of a new law and the need for Belarus legislation on data protection to be in line with international standards, among which the Council of Europe Convention 108 and the EU General Data Protection Regulation. Council of Europe experts, authors of an analysis on the concept, Ms Marie Georges and Mr Hansjürgen Garstka, answered a broad range of questions from the participants, thus clarifying important principles, concepts and terminology. Very interesting exchanges were held between them and participants, in particular on the organisation, operation and possible funding of a future data protection structure to be put in place.
The draft law will then be developed in the course of 2018.