Press release – 254(2010)
Cybercrime lawmakers call for worldwide implementation of the Budapest Convention
Strasbourg, 25.03.2010 – At its 5th annual conference on cybercrime, the Council of Europe called for a worldwide implementation of its Convention on Cybercrime to sustain legislative reforms already underway in many countries and a global capacity-building initiative to combat web-based crimes and enhance trust in information and communication technologies.
Participants underlined the need to make the best possible use of existing tools, instruments, good practices and initiatives. They recommended that a global action plan be launched by the Council of Europe and the United Nations to get a clearer picture of criminal justice capacities and urgent needs, mobilise resources, provide support and assess progress made.
‘The UN Crime Congress in April 2010 will be an opportunity to reinforce our global response to the global threat of cybercrime and cyberterrorism. I think we will have the best chance to succeed if we unite around one international instrument which already exists – namely the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention,’ said Council of Europe Deputy Secretary General Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, speaking at the opening of the conference.
Countries worldwide have been turning to the Budapest Convention since its adoption in 2001. During the conference, Portugal announced the ratification of the Convention and Argentina has made a request for accession.
The conference also highlighted the need to further establish dynamic partnerships between the public and private sectors and their shared responsibility in ensuring security and protecting human rights on the Internet. In this context, the conference proposed the establishment of a contact list for enhanced co-operation between law enforcement and industry.
Last but not least, participants called on ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to strengthen its oversight role of the Internet domain name registration process in order to allow both the protection of private data of individual registrants (in particular in the WHOIS database) as well as the opportunity for law enforcement to use the database to fight cybercrime and cyberterrorism.
The Council of Europe will continue to address the issue of ‘cloud computing’ and intends to ensure that globally trusted privacy and data protection standards and policies are put in place, and that both its Cybercrime Convention and its Convention for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data are applied more widely and efficiently. A human rights and privacy dimension should be brought in the discussions of next year’s conference on cybercrime.
Held in Strasbourg from 23 to 25 March, the conference brought together 300 cybercrime experts from some 60 countries, the private sector and international organisations to also discuss ways of combating online child pornography, mapping networks and initiatives as well as training for judges and prosecutors.
The conclusions of the conference will be made available at: www.coe.int/cybercrime.