(9) On 2 October 1997, Switzerland ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Convention No 108)(3), which aims to reinforce the protection of personal data and to ensure free circulation between the contracting parties, subject to any exceptions which these parties may provide for. Without being directly applicable, the Convention lays down the international commitments of both the Federation and the cantons. These commitments concern not only the basic principles of protection which each contracting party must implement in its internal law but also the mechanisms of cooperation between the contracting parties. In particular, the competent Swiss authorities must provide the authorities of the other contracting parties which so request with any information on the law and administrative practice regarding data protection, and with information on any specific instance of automatic processing of data. They must also assist any person residing abroad in exercising his right to be informed about the existence of processing operations on data concerning him, the right to access his data or to ask for them to be corrected or deleted, and the right of judicial remedy.