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OAS to Host Meeting of Governmental Experts on Cyber Crime to Strengthen Legal Cooperation

The Organization of American States (OAS) will host, on February 27 and 28, national authorities and other governmental experts of the Americas on international legal cooperation to fight cyber crime, at an event to be inaugurated by the Secretary General of the Organization, José Miguel Insulza.

During the Eighth Meeting of the Working Group on Cyber Crime of the process of the Meetings of Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or Attorneys General of the Americas (REMJA), a package of recommendations and concrete actions on cyber crime is expected to be adopted, which will be presented for the consideration and approval of the Ministers of Justice or Other Ministers or Attorneys General of the member states of the OAS during their next meeting (REMJA X).

During the meeting, participants will have the opportunity to share and exchange experiences on the most recent advances and developments in their countries in terms of the elaboration and promotion of legislation and other legal dispositions in the area, the establishment or expansion of units or entities in charge of directing and developing investigation and processing of cyber crimes, and the concrete measures adopted to facilitate and strengthen international cooperation on the issue.

Moreover, as part of the commitments assumed by this Working Group to continue strengthening the mechanism that allows for the exchange of information and cooperation with other international organizations and agencies involved with cyber crime, representatives of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime will take part and, in order to continue to promote relations between the authorities responsible for the prevention, investigation and processing of these crimes and the private sector, representatives of businesses such as Google and Citibank will also participate, among others.

For its part, the Department of Legal Cooperation of the Secretariat for Legal Affairs of the OAS, in its quality as the technical secretariat for the Working Group, will present a diagnostic of the capabilities in the region in the investigation and prosecution of cyber crime and will also deliver a report on developments in legal and technical cooperation reflected, among other areas, in the Inter-American Cooperation Portal on Cyber-crime and the Hemispheric Network for Legal Cooperation on Criminal Matters. The diagnostic will be based on the analysis of the information delivered by the member states of the OAS in their responses to a questionnaire distributed previous to the meeting.

For more information visit the Inter-American Cooperation Portal on Cyber-crime here

WHAT: Eighth Meeting of the Working Group on Cyber Crime of the REMJA process

WHEN: Thursday and Friday, February 27 and 28, 2014

WHERE:Padilha Vidal Room
General Services Building of the OAS
1889 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006

Reference: E-063/14