Draft Data Protection and Privacy Policy – The Gambia. May 2019 1. Introduction Developments in ICT combined with the growth in connectivity and of internet enabled services are leading to the more intensive and automated collection and use of richly detailed personal data, in greater volumes, by the private and public sectors. While these developments are accelerating economic and social development opportunities and benefits, they are also generating new risks for individuals (around the world) requiring national policies and strategies. The Government of The Gambia recognises the increasingly important role personal data plays in the development of the economy and society at large and wishes to adopt measures to help protect personal data and associated fundamental rights and freedoms, and in particular the right to privacy, to ensure public trust in the use of personal data. This is consistent with the Constitution of The Republic of The Gambia 1997 (the ‘Constitution’). Section 23 of the Constitution recognises and sets out the right to privacy and further states that “no person shall be subject to interference with the privacy of his or her home, correspondence or communications save as is in accordance with law and is necessary in a democratic society.” The Government of The Gambia is also signatory to international instruments that establish privacy as a universal fundamental human right, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (1990). The Government wishes to build on the right to privacy enshrined in the Constitution and the above international instruments, and also on the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ‘Supplementary Act on Personal Data Protection’ (2010), the African Union Malabo Convention on Cybersecurity and Data Protection 2014 and the Council of Europe Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (ETS No. 108) and its amending protocol (CETS No. 223) that requires Member States to establish a legal framework of protection for personal data and an individual’s privacy. 2