For Information of any interested member
David Wyatt
On September 19, the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime was
approved by the Committee of Minister's Deputies. It will be
presented to the Committee of Ministers for formal adoption in
November. The Treaty will then be open for signature by the 43 member
states of the Council of Europe and other countries, such as the
United States, Canada and Australia, that contributed to the drafting
process. It will come into force as soon as five countries, including
three of the member states, have ratified it.
The Convention is the first international treaty to address crimes
committed in "Cyberspace" including breach of copyright, computer-
related fraud, child pornography and hacking. The convention requires
signatory countries to ensure that their laws meet uniform standards
relating to a wide range of investigative powers, including electronic
surveillance and access to user records maintained by communications
operators. During its negotiation, the Convention was strongly
criticized by the Global Internet Liberty Campaign, a coalition of
international privacy, security and civil liberties organizations, and
the European Privacy Commissioners as disproportionately weighted in
favor of law enforcement interests.
In response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Council of
Europe is also considering new anti-terrorist proposals. On September
21 a special meeting of the Committee of Ministers was held to discuss
this issue and a request for "an urgent debate on democracies facing
terrorism" has been presented to the Parliamentary Assembly.
Terrorism is also high on the agenda at the European Union. On
September 20, the European Commission presented two important policy
initiatives: a "Framework Decision on combating terrorism" and a
"Framework Decision on an EU Arrest Warrant" to a special meeting of
the European Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in Brussels. The
main objective of these initiatives is to increase co-operation
between police and intelligence services through the Europol network,
to agree on a common definition of terrorism, to harmonize penalties
and sanctions for terrorist acts to abolish formal extradition
procedures among EU states and to introduce a common arrest warrant to
cover all forms of crime, not just terrorism. The EU Justice and Home
Affairs Ministers approved the more than 30 measures contained in
these documents and stressed the need for speed in their
implementation. They vowed to secure agreement and support from their
national governments by December.
On September 24, Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director of EPIC, addressed
these and other issues at the 23rd International Conference of Data
Commissioners which is taking place in Paris, France.
Council of Europe Press Release, "First International Treaty to Combat
Crime in Cyberspace Approved by Ministers' Deputies,"
http://press.coe.int/cp/2001/646a(2001).htm
Council of Europe Press Release, "Democracies Facing Terrorism on the
Agenda for the Autumn," September 21, 2001:
http://press.coe.int/cp/2001/626a(2001).htm
European Union Initiatives:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/justice_home/index_en.htm
Information on the 23rd International Data Commissioners' Conference:
http://www.paris-conference-2001.org
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