Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe (C-PROC)’s Post

These days, our colleagues from the #GLACYe joint project of the Council of Europe and the European Union teamed up with EL PAcCTO 2.0 programme to facilitate the implementation of the #SecondAdditionalProtocol to the 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐲𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 (#BudapestConvention) in Latin American countries. The regional workshop was hosted by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation or Development (AGENCIA ESPAÑOLA DE COOPERACION INTERNACIONAL PARA EL DESARROLLO - AECID), in the Training Center of the Spanish Cooperation in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, being the first in a series of events aimed at supporting countries that have either signed or are in the process of signing the Protocol to discuss challenges and necessary support in its implementation at national level. While awaiting for the Protocol to enter into force, countries need to bring their national laws in line with its provisions in a consistent manner, as well as to ensure that their institutional framework is enabled to implement the required responsibilities. In Latin America, five countries are already signatories, and more are in the process of signing the Protocol. Newsroom: https://lnkd.in/dZxCMXdJ GLACY-e project webpage: https://lnkd.in/d-yEv4ax Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention): https://lnkd.in/g_bnYjY Second Additional Protocol, on enhanced co-operation and disclosure of electronic evidence: https://lnkd.in/dXDvm6Bb Cc: Unión Europea en Colombia, European Commission #Cybercrime #ElectronicEvidence #InternationalCooperation #CybercrimeConvention #SomosCooperación

Sierra Leone joins the Convention on Cybercrime:   Last Friday, Sierra Leone deposited the instrument of accession to the Budapest Convention to become the 71st Party to this treaty.    With domestic legislation already largely aligned with this treaty, we will now need to enhance our support to Sierra Leone through the capacity building projects of the Cybercrime Programme Office of the Council of Europe (C-PROC).   We are on a roll!  I am optimistic that additional countries will become Parties to the Convention in the coming weeks to permit more States to engage in more effective cooperation on #cybercrime and electronic evidence while meeting human rights and rule of law requirements.   https://lnkd.in/dKmfvWBE   https://lnkd.in/e9tPP-tq

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Martin Michelot, our Executive Director for Europe, spoke this morning on behalf of TIC Council on the first panel of #ENISA's 2024 Cybersecurity Certification Conference on the ongoing implementation of the newly released #EUCC.    While reassuring the audience that #TIC companies are preparing for EUCC #certification, he pointed out a number of issues that are still preventing the system from reaching its full potential: -the unavailability of relevant #accreditation programmes and guidance -unequal obligations and duties on EUCC players -third countries' limited access to the #EU market at the moment   📢 We are calling for an #EUCyberCertification framework that is implemented to benefit both manufacturers and #consumers + improves the competitive conditions for #cybersecurity across the world. 🙏 Also a huge thanks to the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and philippe blot for moderating this engaging session!

On 8 August 2024, during the reconvened concluding session of the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee (#AHC), meeting in New York, agreement was reached on the “𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐭 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 #𝐜𝐲𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞; 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬”.   The draft text of the treaty will soon be submitted to the UN General Assembly for formal adoption.   Reaching agreement on this complex matter is an important achievement.   Through our #CPROC office, the Council of Europe supported this treaty process from 2022 in order to ensure consistency with the 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐲𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐞 (𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧) and the inclusion of a minimum of necessary #humanrights and #ruleoflaw safeguards. Key provisions of the #BudapestConvention have been reproduced in the draft treaty but concerns remain regarding safeguards given positions expressed by some States.   During the AHC process, numerous countries became Parties or sought accession to the Budapest Convention. This is an indication of good prospects for 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬 and benefits that States may draw from both treaties. Newsroom: https://lnkd.in/dGbFM5Zt Read more about the Reconvened concluding session of the UN AHC: https://lnkd.in/dVjmQ4a2 Read more about the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention): https://lnkd.in/g_bnYjY

A delegation of the Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA) carried out an evaluation visit to Denmark from 7 to 11 of October 2024, as part of the fourth evaluation round of the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. ➡ This new evaluation round of monitoring the implementation of the Convention focuses on vulnerabilities to human trafficking and measures taken by States Parties to prevent them, detect and support vulnerable victims, and punish the offenders. An additional focus concerns the use of information and communication technology (ICT), which brings structural changes to the way offenders operate and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities. 📃 Following the visit, GRETA will prepare a draft report, which will be sent to the national authorities for comments. GRETA will subsequently adopt a final report which will be made public. 👉 More information ↩ https://bit.ly/48eiPXV

As the United Nations #AHC for negotiating a new global #cybercrime treaty enters its final week, it’s a good point to reflect on the process. First of all, leading the Independent Diplomat team at the AHC, I’ve been very proud to support our partners in the Pacific to engage in these negotiations. Vanuatu and Tonga, in particular, are strong moral voices, reminding bigger nations in the world that we can only combat international cybercrime if we work together as a global community. As ardent defenders of human rights online and making sure that the future Convention has appropriate safeguards in place, it’s been an absolute joy to play our small part in their success in these negotiations. With four and a half days to go, it is still unclear what the convention will look like. We do not even have agreement on what crimes are part of the scope of the convention. There are many countries in the world adamant on making this treaty into something that can be used to oppress and to persecute, in cyberspace and in the physical world. All of us committed to human rights, political and religious freedoms, and democratic norms, are working on turning the convention into something that is actually useful and that has appropriate safeguards in place. Many developing countries, particularly small island developing states (SIDS), are in a very vulnerable position in cyberspace due to their lack of capacity to prevent, detect or prosecute cybercrime, as well as a lack of funding, of trained personnel, and of appropriate defence mechanisms and technologies. A new convention could mean more capacity building, new modes of cooperation, and a renewed spotlight on the idiosyncratic issues of trying to grapple with cybercrime in the SIDS. We need to keep a focus on these issues, while also ensuring that the final language is aligned with the Budapest Convention – an existing and operational international cooperation framework on cybercrime, with which over 60 countries have already harmonised their domestic legislation. I am hopeful that this can be achieved. But the next four and a half days are going to be crucial in making it happen.  

📢 2nd RITHMS Public #Conference is coming to A Coruña! 🇪🇸 Join us on April 30, 2024, for this exceptional event organized by the RITHMS Consortium, focusing on combating the #illicittrafficking of #culturalproperty. Conference Objectives: Delve into the criminal phenomenon of illicit trafficking, aiming to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding. We will assess the current state of the art, identify gaps in collective knowledge, and work towards developing measures that enhance #EUpolicy and #lawenforcement practices in protecting cultural heritage. This collaborative day will facilitate the exchange of ideas between scholars and police officers, aiming to strengthen our collective capacity to preserve human history and effectively combat trafficking networks. A special thank you to the Universidade da Coruña for hosting and curating this event! #SavetheDate: 🗓️ April 30, 2024 📍 A Coruña, Spain 👉🏼Learn more about the conference here: https://lnkd.in/d4nDxyXe 🔗 Register Now: https://lnkd.in/dup6TXDn ‼️Both online and in-person attendance are possible upon registration. The link to the video conference will be shared by email in advance with online attendees. Please note that online attendance is limited to 150 connections. If you are unable to attend, kindly inform us at info@rithms.eu so that we can transfer the available spot to someone on the waiting list. #RITHMSConference #CulturalHeritageProtection #unite4heritage #artcrime #illicittrafficking #culturalheritage #lawenforcementagencies #ITtechnology #horizoneurope #socialnetworkanalysis #RITHMSplatform #cybersecurity #EUsecurity #artlaw #artmarket #culturalgoods #culturalproperty #looting 

The deep disagreements have forced the Chair to suspend the AHC and ask for the mandate to be extended for another session in the Spring/Summer. It does makes sense – even this morning, states were not only arguing over specific wording proposals, but at two years in, still about the major substantive issues. The Chair and many delegations were prepared to start holding a series of votes on various versions of the substantive Articles, but there are so many different proposals and opinions, that voting would have quickly led to a complete mess of language that might not even be coherent within individual articles, let alone within the Convention as a whole. So while a prudent decision, we do need to note the impact on SIDS. The delegates from small island developing states in the Pacific all have day jobs - as government advisers, as prosecutors, as digital leaders, etc. Not only does a new session mean that they need to find the time and the money to be able to travel to NY again, but their day jobs will also have to be put on hold. In countries where the population size is sometimes measured in the tens of thousands, this will have an impact on the entire society.