This work illustrates reform approaches in Africa using an international legal comparative approach. The research uses Tanzania and Senegal as the primary case studies and France, the United Kingdom and Germany as secondary case studies to illustrate how Europe reformed data protection regimes through the transposition of the EU Data Protection Directive of 1995. Chapter one introduces the work; explaining the forces towards data protection regulations and their basis. Chapter two provides for a ‘back-to-back' comparison in three countries (France, Germany and United Kingdom) against the 1995 Data Protection Directive. The idea behind this chapter is to draw a picture on how the legal culture and the pre-existing notions of the right to privacy inform on data protection legal reforms and determines the nature, contents, context and interpretation of adopted regime for data protection. Eventually, all these aspects affect the nature and extent of protection offered regardless of the substance of the law adopted. Chapter three gives a narrative explanation of nature and perceptions of the right to privacy in Africa and how this may affect data protection reforms in Africa. In the same disposition, African customary legal systems and practices are explained providing a reader with a picture of the overall nature of African systems that makes up an African legal culture. The overview of African privacy perception and legal system is necessary for assessing the workability of any data protection regime to be adopted in Africa which in effect answers the first research question. The chapter draws its rationale from chapter two. In understanding African perceptions of privacy and the African legal culture, one can be able to predict the content and context of the reforms and maybe how the judiciary might interpret the laws based on local perceptions and supporting systems. An overview of the African data protection architecture or rather human right architecture is provided in chapter four; ideally to provide a reader with a picture of the enforcement systems in Africa as a continent. This is followed by chapter five discussing the two major legal systems in Africa; the civil law and the common law system. The chapter also illustrates the position of African landscape in relation to legal harmonization/unification. This aspect is considered necessary because data protection regimes are more focused on legal harmonization and hence the question of how well or to what extent Africa as a continent can bring about harmonization in law became inevitable. Eventually, the chapter offers a comparative mirror analysis of the primary case studies, i.e. Senegal and Tanzania. The analysis is made on the reform approach taken, motivation behind the reforms and on the regime erected (this is done through textual analysis of the law and the draft bill respectively). Chapter six concludes the work by answering research questions based on findings and scrutiny from each chapter. It is concluded that there is a very slim chance for the African States to cling on the cultural defence against the adoption of the Western frameworks for data protection. It is also concluded that, lest Africa becomes an active participant in the global process that informs on data protection challenges and regulations, it faces a danger of becoming a puppet of foreign data protection regulation, which may or may not fit African legal culture. The chapter also illustrates how Africa as a continent and the African States individually have taken up data protection reforms blindly. The motivations for the reforms are vaguely stated and unclear. In the majority of legal instruments, the reforms are not taken as a move towards securing and protecting individual rights rather a purely political move influenced by economic motivations. The reforms are to a large extent, a mere impression to align with global data protection regimes and hence lack the political will to enforce the laws.
Data Protection Reforms, African Privacy, African Legal Reforms
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