GOVERNMENT EXPERTS ON CYBER-CRIME TO MEET AT OAS HEADQUARTERS TO CONSIDER DEVELOPMENTS IN LEGAL COOPERATION AGAINST CYBER-CRIME

On February 27 and 28, 2014, the Headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington DC, will host authorities and government experts from the Americas with responsibilities in the area of international legal cooperation against cyber-crime.  This event will be inaugurated by the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, on Thursday, February 27, at 9am.

As a concrete result of this Eighth Meeting of the Working Group on Cyber-crime of the REMJA process (Meetings of Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas), recommendations for action in the area of cyber-crime will be put forth for consideration and adoption by the Ministers of Justice and Attorneys General of the OAS Member States at the next Meeting of the REMJA (REMJA X).

During this meeting of the Working Group, participating government experts and officials will share the latest national developments, related principally to the drafting or entry into force laws on this topic, the establishment or expansion of investigation and/or prosecutorial units specifically responsible for cyber-crimes, and the adoption of concrete measures for international cooperation in this field.

Participants at the meeting will also include representatives of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), as part of the commitments made by the Working Group to continue strengthening the mechanisms for information exchange and cooperation with other international organizations and agencies in the area of cyber-crime.

Similarly, representatives of the private sector, such as Google and Citibank, will participate with a view to facilitating and strengthening cooperation between States and the private sector, in order to prevent, investigate and punish cyber-crimes.

The OAS Department of Legal Cooperation of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs, in its capacity as Technical Secretariat of the Working Group, will present a diagnosis of the ability of OAS Member States to effectively investigate and prosecute cyber-crimes, based on an analysis of information provided by States in their responses to a standardized questionnaire on the matter, as well as developments taking place in legal and technical cooperation, reflected, inter alia, by the Inter-American Cooperation Portal on Cyber-Crime and the Hemispheric Network for Legal Cooperation on Criminal Matters (the “Network”).

More information about the meeting and the REMJA Working Group on Cyber-crime can be found on the Inter-American Cooperation Portal on Cyber-Crime.