In addition to the Cybercrime Convention, the Council of Europe also developed the first additional protocol to the Cybercrime Convention on the criminalisation of acts of a racist or xenophobic nature committed through computer systems (ETS No. 189).

Ratification Status for the Additional Protocol as of April 2008

32 Member States (including the external supporters Canada, and South Africa) have signed the Additional Protocol since it was opened to signature in January 2003, only 11 Member States (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Denmark, France,  Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Ukraine, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) have ratified the Additional Protocol as of April 2008.

Following the initial five ratifications the Additional Protocol came into force on March 1, 2006. The UK is not among the Member States who have signed it so far.

For further information about the Additional Protocol see the following:

• Akdeniz, Y., Stocktaking on efforts to combat Racism on the Internet, background report for the High Level Seminar on Racism and the Internet, Intergovernmental Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, Fourth session, Geneva, 16-27 January 2006, E/CN.4/2006/WG.21/BP.1, published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Office: Geneva, January 2006, 45pp.
• Akdeniz, Y., An Advocacy Handbook for the Non Governmental Organisations: The Council of Europe’s Cyber-Crime Convention 2001 and the additional protocol on the criminalisation of acts of a racist or xenophobic nature committed through computer systems, Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties, December 2003 (revised and updated in August 2007).
• Akdeniz, Y., “Governing Racist Content on the Internet: National and International Responses,” (2007) University of New Brunswick Law Journal (Canada), Vol. 56, Spring, 103-161. (available upon request via email)