News
Cybercrime: Council of Europe to launch new legal arsenal
May 2022 by Council of Europe
The additional protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention), intended to enhance co-operation and disclosure of electronic evidence, will be opened for signature at an international conference to be held on 12 and 13 May in Strasbourg – under the Italian Presidency of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.
While cybercrime is proliferating and the complexity of obtaining electronic evidence that may be stored in foreign, multiple, shifting or unknown jurisdictions is increasing, the powers of law enforcement are limited by territorial boundaries. As a result, only a very small share of cybercrime that is reported to criminal justice authorities is leading to prosecutions or court decisions.
The Additional Protocol responds to this challenge and provides tools such as direct co-operation with service providers and registrars, effective means to obtain subscriber information and traffic data, immediate co-operation in emergencies or joint investigations - that are subject to a system of human rights and rule of law, including data protection safeguards.
The Italian Minister of Justice, Marta Cartabia, and the Council of Europe Secretary General, Marija Pejčinović Burić, will open the conference which will bring together representatives of governments, the police, the internet industry, the civil society and academia.
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More about the Budapest Convention
On 23 November 2001, the Council of Europe opened for signature the Convention on Cybercrime, which is still the most relevant international treaty protecting individuals and their rights against internet crime.
In 2003, an Additional Protocol concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems was added to the Convention.
In 2014, the Cybercrime Programme Office (C-PROC) was launched in Bucharest (Romania) in order to ensure the implementation of capacity-building projects on cybercrime and electronic evidence in all regions of the world. C-PROC supported more than 1000 activities involving over 120 countries.
To date, 66 countries have ratified the Convention on Cybercrime, two have signed it and 13 have been invited to accede (Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ecuador, Fiji, Guatemala, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Vanuatu). More than 140 countries are working with the Council of Europe to reinforce their legislation and capacity to address cybercrime.
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