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OAS BECOMES OBSERVER MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE CYBER CRIME CONVENTION COMMITTEE

The Organization of American States (OAS), through its Department of Legal Cooperation of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs, which serves as the Technical Secretariat of the Meetings of Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA) and of the REMJA Working Group on Cyber-Crime, has accepted an invitation to become an observer of the Council of Europe (COE) Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY).

In conveying the invitation to the OAS, Mr. Alexander Seger, Secretary of the Cybercrime Convention Committee, cited the close cooperation between the OAS and the Council of Europe in cybercrime matters in recent years.  Some of these cooperative endeavors have included the holding of various regional cyber-crime training workshops for OAS Member States on the development of adequate legislation to effectively combat cyber crime, participation by the COE Secretariat at the biennial Meetings of REMJA Working Group on Cyber-Crime, and attendance by the OAS Technical Secretariat at COE cyber-crime related events.

The consolidation of this longstanding cooperation relationship that has existed between the two organizations in the form of the OAS’ acceptance as an observer to the T-CY, will allow the OAS to develop additional joint actions in support of the OAS Member States efforts to combat cybercrime, particularly within the framework of the REMJA Working Group on Cyber-Crime.

The OAS joins a group of observers, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the G8 High Tech Crime Subgroup, as well as various OAS Member States, such as Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico, among others.

For more information on the REMJA Working Group on Cyber-Crime, please visit the Inter-American Cooperation Portal on Cyber-Crime.