Party to the Budapest Convention and GLACY+ priority country since 2017, Tonga has adopted in November 2020 the Electronic Communication Abuse Act 2020 – soon to enter into effect, introducing obligations for service providers to assist LEA and the mandatory production order for access to data. In addition to that, further amendments of the legislation on cybercrime and electronic evidence are pending with the Tongan Parliament.

GLACY+ project supported the Attorney General Office of Tonga in organizing a hybrid workshop on June 24-25, with the aim of fully preparing stakeholders into implementing the new cybercrime provisions in practice. Furthermore, Council of Europe’s expert brought clarifications on the mechanisms of public/private cooperation and the 2nd Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, on the topic of Direct cooperation with providers and entities in other Parties.

The event was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the Judiciary, Tongan Police, Tonga Computer Emergency Response Team, Prosecution and Service Providers. The event was supported and joined by other international partners: Telstra, the Australian Department of Home Affairs, the New Zealand Police, Facebook, alongside other independent experts on analyzing and understanding electronic evidence.

The GLACY+ Project is a joint initiative of the European Union and the Council of Europe, aimed at strengthening the global response to cybercrime and the challenges posed by electronic evidence. The project will continue to support Tongan authorities in their legislation harmonization and capacity building initiatives.