The first of a series of activities organized by the Caribbean Community Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS) and the Council of Europe’s Octopus Project on Cybercrime, together with the US Department of Justice, took place online between 16-17 July 2020.

The activity is part of a programme of meetings and workshops that will happen between July 2020 and March 2021 and it is addressed to authorities responsible for cybercrime legislation (such as Ministries of Justice, Interior or Telecommunications, Attorney General’s Offices, or Parliaments) from CARICOM Members States: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago.

The aim of this programme is to have an assessment of legislation in place and to make recommendations for further reform of domestic legislations on cybercrime and electronic evidence in CARICOM Member States. The assessments, as well as the recommendations, together with the experience shared and knowledge gained should permit authorities in charge to pursue the further strengthening of their legislation. This should furthermore permit States of the region to assess the option of accession to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime.

Therefore, during the two days’ workshop, participants had the opportunity to have an overview of the Caribbean cybercrime trends and of the state of cybercrime legislation in the region, learn about the Budapest Convention and how they could use it as a guideline for domestic legislation. Moreover, the countries, individually had the opportunity to share their expectations, preferences from the program and present the current state of the national legislation and of the support required.

Follow-up activities will take place between September 2020 and February 2021 and will consist of a series of country specific workshops and finalize with a regional workshop.