Dear all,
I'm in Geneva since 23rd night. I participated in the CRIS meeting on
24th and 25th, and am attending official meetings.
There is a movement to adopt the Council of Europe Convention on
Cybercrime as WSIS (Council of Europe and US delegate may have proposed).
I found that the Convention on Cybercrime was in the document today. And
now governments of China and Russia are opposing, so now the phrases below
seems to be still in the brackets.
================================================================
Sub-Committee A - Room Document 6
(http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs2/pc3/room-docs/6.pdf)
New Para 50.
We underline the importance of effective instruments and efficient
mechanisms for the prosecution of cybercrime, including crime committed
in one jurisdiction but having effects in another.
We call upon governments, in cooperation with other stakeholders, to
develop national legislation for the investigation and prosecution of
cybercrime, taking into account existing international frameworks, such
as the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime
================================================================
This Convention on Cybercrime might cause grievous harm on human rights.
I will give a brief explanation of the Convention below for those who
are not familiar with the Convention.
(adapted from the expalation by EPIC)
According to the preamble, the main aim of the Convention is to pursue
"a common criminal policy aimed at the protection of society against
cybercrime, inter alia by adopting appropriate legislation and fostering
international co-operation."
The Convention includes a list of crimes that each signatory state must
transpose into their own law. It requires the criminalization of such
activities as hacking (including the production, sale, or distribution
of hacking tools) and offenses relating to child pornography, and
expands criminal liability for intellectual property violations. It also
requires each signatory state to implement certain procedural mechanisms
within their laws. For example, law enforcement authorities must be
granted the power to compel an Internet Service Provider to monitor a
person's activities online in real time. Finally, the Convention
requires signatory states to provide international cooperation to the
"widest extent possible" for investigations and proceedings concerning
criminal offenses related to computer systems and data, or for the
collection of evidence in electronic form of a criminal offense. Law
enforcement agencies will have to assist police from other participating
countries to cooperate with their "mutual assistance requests."
Independent legal experts and human rights activists have continually
posited objections to the Convention because it threatens core civil
liberties protections. Common criticisms are that the treaty fails to
provide meaningful privacy and civil liberties protections, and that its
scope is too broad and covers much more than computer-related crimes.
The treaty also lacks a "dual criminality" provision, under which an
activity must be considered a crime in both countries before one state
could demand cooperation from another. Thus, the treaty would require
law enforcement authorities to cooperate with foreign police forces even
when such agencies are investigating an activity that, while
constituting a crime in their territory, is perfectly legal in a state.
Furthermore, the drafting of the treaty has been conducted in a very
secretive and undemocratic manner, and did not take human rights' groups
concerns into account. For this reason, the treaty seems more like a law
enforcement "wish list" than an international instrument truly
respectful of human rights already enshrined in many international
conventions, such as the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights and the 1950
European Convention of Human Rights. Again, no major European country
has ratified this treaty at this time.
- Taratta
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Hamada Taratta http://dreamery.ne.jp/
ViVa! volunteer net http://www.viva.ne.jp/
Japan Computer Access for Empowerment http://www.jcafe.net/
See everything as if for the first time. // 3*7*11*13*(2*5+17*19)
Do everything as if for the last time. // 7*9*11*13*(5*15+17+19)