Monaco has taken a bold step toward safeguarding personal data, cementing its place in a global push for privacy. On Thursday, March 6, H.E. Gabriel Revel, Monaco’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe, handed over the Principality’s ratification papers for a pivotal update to the world’s only binding international data protection treaty—known as Convention 108—to Bjorn Berge, the Council’s Deputy Secretary General.
This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. Monaco’s been in the game since 2009, when it signed onto Convention 108 and its additional protocol. The Principality inked the amendment, dubbed Convention 108+, back on October 18, 2018, the day it opened for signatures. Now, with this ratification, Monaco’s bringing its laws into the digital age, syncing up with a modernised framework built to tackle today’s tech-driven world.
Convention 108 isn’t just a European club—it’s a global standard, open to any nation willing to step up. The “plus” version ramps up protections to match the breakneck pace of innovation, from sprawling social media networks to sprawling AI systems. For Monaco, this move follows hot on the heels of two big legislative wins: Law No. 1.566, passed December 3, 2024, greenlighting the protocol’s ratification, and Law No. 1.565, rolled out the same day, overhauling local data protection rules to meet the treaty’s beefed-up demands.
Monaco is now the 33rd country to lock in its support for Convention 108+. Five more ratifications are needed to hit the magic number—38—for the updated treaty to kick into force. With this step, the tiny Principality isn’t just keeping pace; it’s signalling to the world that it’s serious about guarding the digital lives of its people.
