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Status regarding Budapest Convention

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Cybercrime policies/strategies

In August 2019 the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Digital Economy of the Republic of Congo has officially presented the National Digital Strategy 2025. The document has as purpose to define and guide the transition of Congo towards a digital economy.

The National Digital Strategy 2025 has three pillars: e-citizen, e-government and e-business, each of it with different strategic axis. Cybercrime (with its international cooperation component), cybersecurity and data protection are defined under the Judicial and Institutional Framework strategic axis of the first pillar, while the creation of the national agency for computer systems is foreseen under the same strategic axis of the second pillar. A CERT is foreseen to be created under the Digital Trust strategic axis of the third pillar.

Under the same Ministry, work has been undertaken to draft a National Cyber Security Strategy.

Cybercrime legislation

State of cybercrime legislation

The National Digital Strategy 2025 highlights the necessity of completing the current legal framework with pieces of legislation regarding cybersecurity, the fight against cybercrime, electronic transactions, data protection, copy right and related rights, the creation of the national agency for computer systems security and the creation of the national commission for data protection.

In this regard, the Republic of Congo has adopted later in 2019 the Law no. 29-2019 on personal data protection and Law no. 30-2019 on the creation of the National Agency For Computer Systems Security (ANSSI).

Following the strategy guidance, two other laws have been adopted by the Parliament on 5th of June 2020: one regarding the fight against cybercrime (Law no. 27-2020) and the other one on cybersecurity (Law no. 26-2020). The laws have been drafted following the models endorsed by the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), which consider the relevant regional and international standards in the field, such as the Malabo and the Budapest Conventions.

Substantive law

Law no. 27-2020, in its Title II: Offenses Related To Information And Communication Technologies, introduces several substantive law provisions such as computer systems confidentiality breaches (Chapter 1, Article 4), fraudulent interception of data from an computer system (Chapter 4, Article 8), the abuse of devices and the association of computer criminals (Chapter 7, Article 25), data integrity breaches in an computer system (Chapter 5, Articles 10 and 11). Child pornography is punished under Chapter 8, Articles 27 to 29. Offences related to infringements of copyright and related rights are prosecuted under Chapter 16, Article 70.

Criminal liability of legal persons id defined under Chapter 20, Articles 78 and 79 and the sanctions against the legal persons in Article 81.

Regarding natural persons, the Congolese law essentially foresees, for the punishment of offenses committed, prison and correctional fines.

Safeguards

The 2015 Constitution of the Republic of Congo integrates the fundamental principles proclaimed and guaranteed by the United Nations Charter of October 24, 1945, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 10, 1948, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights of June 26, 1981, the Charter of National Unity and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms adopted by the Sovereign National Conference on May 29, 1991 and all relevant duly ratified international human rights texts.

In its section dedicated to the Rights, freedoms and duties of citizens, the Constitution mentions several rights such as: the right to life (Article 8), right to freedom (including the presumption of innocence and the right to a fair and equitable trial – Article 9) – this last right is completed by Article 11 – the arrested persons have the right to be informed about the reason and his/hers rights in a language he/she understands, any torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment being forbidden. Furthermore, Article 15 guarantees the equality of citizens before the law and state protection, while Article 20 guarantees home inviolability. Freedom of speech, secrecy of correspondence, copyright protection and the right to take legal action over any prejudice done by the administration are guaranteed under Articles 25, 26, 35 and 47.