On 13 June, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department organized a regional co-ordination meeting for 20 senior representatives of law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities and educational institutions from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in Vienna, Austria.

The purpose of the meeting was to identify and discuss which capacity building needs on cybercrime remain in Central Asia and how they will be addressed in the second phase of the OSCE’s regional initiative on cybercrime for the region, which is expected to start later this year. The meeting followed the concluding event for the project’s first phase, which took place in Vienna on 11 and 12 June.

“Regional meetings provide a crucial platform to share experiences, reflect on common challenges and identify concrete ways the OSCE can support participating States in Central Asia to work together to more effectively address the threat of cybercrime. We look forward to continue keeping our focus on strengthening regional co-operation as one of the main pillars of the second phase of our initiative to build the capacity of criminal justice authorities in Central Asia to combat cybercrime,” said Martha Stickings, Deputy Head of the Strategic Police Matters Unit and Adviser on Cybercrime at the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, during her opening remarks.

The second phase addresses the regional needs identified through the implementation of the first phase in 2020-2024. Project activities will take place under four pillars:

• Building the capacities of law enforcement educational institutions to develop and provide systematic and sustainable national professional training programmes on investigating cybercrimes and other crimes involving electronic evidence.
• Strengthening law enforcement capacities to identify, collect and analyze electronic evidence
• Improving regional co-operation on combatting cybercrime.
• Raising awareness among policy makers and the public about the security threats posed by cybercrime

The importance of upholding international human rights commitments when investigating and prosecuting cybercrimes and other crimes involving electronic evidence will be a cross-cutting priority addressed in all four pillars.

The meeting was supported through the extra-budgetary project “Capacity Building on Combating Cybercrime in Central Asia” funded by the United States, Germany, Finland and the Republic of Korea.