
Enhanced Cooperation and Disclosure of Electronic Evidence: Towards a New Protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime




Background
Cybercrime is a threat to human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Criminal justice authorities are confronted with a continuous increase in the scale and quantity of cybercrime and other offences involving electronic evidence, with associated technical challenges, with issues related to cloud computing and jurisdiction, including links to organised crime, and with challenges facing the system of mutual legal assistance. The COVID-19 pandemic is accompanied by further proliferation of cybercrime.
This underlines the need for effective criminal justice action, making use of frameworks such as the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and additional solutions, including those being developed for the 2nd Additional Protocol to permit instant cooperation in urgent and emergency situations subject to human rights and rule of law safeguards.
The aim of the Protocol is to enhance cooperation on cybercrime and electronic evidence in specific criminal investigations and proceedings through:
- Tools for more efficient mutual assistance;
- Provisions for direct cooperation with private sector entities (with service providers for subscriber information and with registrars for domain name registration information) in other Parties;
- Expedited cooperation in emergency situations;
- Data protection safeguards will ensure that personal data received under this Protocol will be protected
The provisions of the 2nd Additional Protocol will offer much added value, both from operational and policy perspectives shaping international criminal justice action on cybercrime and electronic evidence for many years to come. Adoption of the Protocol will keep the Convention on Cybercrime highly relevant and effective, standing for a vision of a free Internet, where restrictions are narrowly defined to counter misuse, and where only specific criminal offences are investigated and prosecuted.
Objectives
Expected outcomes
- Participants will be up-to-date and will have shared their views on current proposals on solutions aimed at enhanced international cooperation and access to electronic evidence, provided by the future 2nd Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention.
- Criminal justice authorities from Parties and Observers to the Budapest Convention will be better prepared to initiate internal procedures with a view of using the toolkit offered by the 2nd Additional protocol to the Budapest Convention once it is adopted and opened for signature.
Resources
- Budapest Convention on Cybercrime
- Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime
- IAP & CoE Series of Webinars (IAP website)