Lanka to join Budapest Cybercrime convention

Sri Lanka has become one of the first countries in South Asia to be invited to join the Budapest Cybercrime Convention. This was communicated in a letter sent to the Secretary, Foreign Affairs recently by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. This follows a decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.

The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime is also known as the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime.

It is the only available international treaty on the subject to address internet and computer crime by harmonising national laws, improving investigative techniques and increasing cooperation among nations.

The Head of Cybercrime and Data Protecton division of the Council of Europe, Alexander Seger said, "The Budapest Cybercrime Convention is a European Convention open for non-European countries to accede. The USA, Australia, Japan, Costa Rica, Mauritius and Senegal have already acceded to this convention."

"South Africa, Morocco, Philippines and now Sri Lanka have been invited to join, while in over 120 countries' legislation has been influenced by this Convention," he said.

ICTA's Chairperson Ms. Chitranganie Mubarak said, "Joining a European Convention of this nature will be a tremendous boost to Sri Lanka in terms of how the country is perceived in the international arena for ICT." The Program Director and Legal Advisor, ICTA, Jayantha Fernando said, "Accession to the Convention will significantly help in the successful investigation of Cybercrime. It will also help in law enforcement and judicial cooperation at international level, while ensuring human rights safeguards in the investigation process."

"Cybercrime is transnational and multi-jurisdictional in nature.

Therefore, the effective combat against cybercrime needs access to computer systems and networks in other countries," he said.

"The Budapest Convention facilitates such access. The Convention will greatly enhance the gathering of electronic evidence, the investigation of cyber laundering and other serious crimes," Fernando said.

"The Sri Lankan Computer Crimes Act No. 24 of 2007 was founded on the principles contained in the Budapest Convention on Cyber Crime. As such Sri Lanka already has the domestic legislation to accede to this convention," Fernando said.

A significant amount of work was done before Sri Lanka was invited to join this important Convention.

The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) took the lead policy initiative in this connection, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice.

Under the rules of procedures of the Convention it was necessary to obtain the unanimous agreement of all state parties to the Convention before Sri Lanka could be invited.

Therefore, several rounds of informal and formal consultations had to be held with the state parties.