By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay – Outreach Officer, MOICE
The Ministry of Information and Civic Education has set its sights on finalizing the Data Protection Law this year. Minister Chernor Bah made the pronouncement at a Technical Working Group meeting on Thursday.
He said the ministry is determined to finalize the law in line with the timeline President Julius Maada Bio has given. Minister Bah said the ministry will be building on existing work that has already been done.
“This has been in the works for years; we are building on work other ministries and other ministers have done for years. The instruction from His Excellency is that we must get this done in the first half of this year, ideally the first quarter,” Minister Bah said.
“We are not starting from scratch. We have a draft, we have a way forward, and we have the experts who are in this room, representing a diverse set of stakeholders,” he added.
The Technical Working Group comprises key government ministries and agencies, including civil society and media representatives. On Thursday, the working group agreed on key timelines to meet the three-month target to pass the bill.
Minister Bah said, The technical working group will provide the technical blueprint and support the consultant that will now lead us home (towards finalization of the bill).”
Minister Bah insisted that the thought around this bill is to make sure the government does not have to set up a new agency to implement it but strengthen an existing institution like the Right to Access Information Commission to carry on with this mandate, in line with international best practice.
Civil society activist Abdul Fatorma, who is a member of the Technical Working Group, said his organization, Campaign for Human Rights and Development International, is willing to commit its time to work with the government on this.
“We have been working on this law and the cybersecurity law for years. We have a good relationship with the legislature, and we had already started to get their support. We are happy to work with the government on this,” he said.
The minister thanked partners that are working with the government on this, from Irish Aid, UNDP, and the EU to local institutions like the Ministry of Communication, Technology, and Innovation and
Ministry of Internal Affairs
