The Personal Data Protection Agency of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia and the Council of Europe organised a workshop on “Personal Data Protection and Freedom of Information” on 29 January 2016. The event marked 28 January International Personal Data Protection Day. The Minister of Justice, Ms. Arpine Hovhannisyan in her welcoming remarks congratulated participants of the workshop on the 10th anniversary of the Personal Data Protection Day .  

The Minister said that through the “Law on Personal Data Protection” the protection of personal data received state security, personal data subjects and processors balanced mutual rights and obligations. Personal Data Protection Agency was established as an impartial body that sets the lawfulness and the constant supervision of the processing of personal data.

The Minister also mentioned that the event is a good opportunity to inform public about the importance of their constitutional rights and the need to protect that right, on the other hand, to discuss current issues in the field of personal data protection and find solutions to them.

Ms. Natalia Voutova, Head of the Council of Europe office in Yerevan in her welcoming speech mentioned that the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, which was ratified by Armenia in 2012, today is still the only binding international treaty in this field. It is open to any country, and has the potential to become a global standard. The treaty establishes a number of principles for states to transpose into their domestic legislation to ensure, in particular, the fair and lawful processing of data.

Head of the Personal Data Protection Agency of the RA Ministry of Justice Ms. Shushan Doydoyan welcomed participants and presented the Agency's work from its establishment (October, 2015) and her vision of its development.

During the workshop presentations were made on the recent developments in protection of personal data in Armenia, personal data protection and freedom of information dilemmas, ECHR case law in the field, as well as personal data protection challenges in the on-line environment.

The workshop was organized by the Personal Data Protection Agency of the RA Ministry of Justice and the Council of Europe in the framework of the Council of Europe/European Union Eastern Partnership Programmatic Co-operation Framework Project “Enhance the Right to Data Protection” program.