Authorities
and government experts from the Member States of the Organization of
American States (OAS) with responsibilities in legal cooperation against
cyber-crime, met at OAS Headquarters on February 27 and 28, 2014, on the
occasion of the Eighth Meeting of the Working Group on Cybercrime of the
REMJA process (Meetings of Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or
Attorneys General of the Americas).
This meeting was opened by the Secretary for Legal Affairs, Dr. Jean
Michel Arrighi, who noted, in his introductory remarks, the global
impact of cyber-crimes, and highlighted the steps that several OAS
Member States have taken in the recent past, in order to better to
better equip their governments and citizens in the face of these crimes.
In addition, Dr. Arrighi spoke of the progress made in
hemispheric legal cooperation against cyber-crime in the context of the
Working Group and the REMJA and referred to some of the challenges for
cooperation in this field, such as the fact that these crimes are often
“borderless” in nature, and that accordingly, adequate responses often
require international cooperation.
Similarly, the OAS General Secretariat, through the Department of Legal
Cooperation of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs, presented a diagnostic
of the status of the hemispheric legal cooperation in relation to
cyber-crimes and developments taking place within the framework of the
OAS/REMJA, including the
Inter-American
Cooperation Portal on Cyber-Crime and the
information exchange
Criminal Matters Network
between the central authorities for cooperation and mutual assistance.
This information included, among others, a diagnostic of the
substantive and procedural legislation that Member States have
implemented in order to combat cyber-crimes, as well as mechanisms for
requesting and obtaining mutual assistance related thereto; the
existence of dedicated units for investigating and prosecuting
cyber-crimes; as well as the results presented by the responding Member
States, in terms of cyber-crime investigations, prosecutions and
convictions.
The Working Group also had the opportunity to hear presentations by
representatives of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Office
on Drugs and Crime, as well as other international experts, building on
decisions taken at previous meetings regarding the continued
strengthening of information exchange and cooperation with other
international organizations and agencies in the area of cyber-crime.
As the final point on the agenda, the Working Group adopted a set of
recommendations
setting out concrete actions to strengthen and consolidate hemispheric
legal cooperation in preventing, prosecuting and punishing cyber-crimes,
which will be considered by the Ministers of Justice and Attorneys
General of the OAS Members States in the framework of REMJA X, to be
held in 2014.
Those recommendations call upon Member States to strengthen their
existing cyber-crime legislation and mechanisms for international mutual
assistance, create units to deal with cyber-crime investigations and
prosecutions, continue to develop partnerships with the private sector,
and consider joining the G8 24/7 Network, among others.
In addition, the recommendations contemplate, for the first time,
expansion of the regional cyber-crime training program to include judges
and magistrates of the OAS Member States. For more information about the meeting and the actions of the Working Group on Cybercrime REMJA visit the Inter-American Cooperation Portal on Cyber-Crime.
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