Combatting Cybercrime in the Commonwealth

Summary

This project will build upon the Commonwealth Secretariat’s previous cybercrime capacity building work to increase awareness of cybercrime in the Commonwealth

Details

Aim

This project aims to influence the establishment in the Commonwealth of effective anti-cybercrime frameworks, i.e., laws, policies, institutions, and practices that can be harnessed to combat the growing scourge of cybercrime.

Context

In 2018-2020, the UK’s Commonwealth Cyber Programme contained a Commonwealth Electronic Evidence Sharing project delivered by the Commonwealth Secretariat.  This project – Combatting Cybercrime in the Commonwealth – will build upon that work and other Commonwealth Secretariat projects.

Outcomes

The intended outcomes of the project are:

• Increase awareness in the Commonwealth of the risks and dangers posed by cybercrime and weak cybercrime-combating frameworks to (a) economic development; (b) democracy, peace and security; (c) human rights; and (d) the lives of ordinary people, and especially the vulnerable communities and those not familiar with risks inherent on cyberspace;
• Enhance cybercrime-combating capacity in select Commonwealth countries
• Strengthen pan-Commonwealth anti-cybercrime cooperation frameworks.

Outputs

The outputs for this project will be:

• End of Inception Phase Report
• Research outputs on cybercrime in target Commonwealth countries highlighting the risks to economic development, democracy, peace and security, and human rights; (i) communication outputs that promote the use of positive change-influencing reports and Model Laws; (ii) virtual Commonwealth Cybercrime Conferences & a podcast series to increase knowledge trends on cybersecurity and how to curb cybercrime.
• Cybercrime-combating capacity of select Commonwealth countries developed– through Model laws and training courses on cybercrime, including the collection, preservation and use in criminal trials of electronic evidence targeting key criminal justice stakeholders, including: (i) members of parliament; (ii) legislative counsel; (iii) police; (iv) prosecutors; (v) Magistrates and Judges; (vi) lawyers/defence counsel; and (vii) lecturers/academics/centres of excellence in law schools and legal education training colleges.
• Strengthened cybercrime enforcement and cooperation frameworks in select countries and generally in the Commonwealth.
• Strengthened best practice in key cybercrimes challenges across the African continent: cascaded through the African cyber Fellowship
• The establishment of an effective pan-Commonwealth Combating Cybercrime Cooperation Framework linked to electronic evidence and Mutual Legal Assistance Schemes (which will be achieved through capacity building, and systems and institutions’ building initiatives);
• A study of the state of use of cyber-space by ‘Innocent Bystanders’ to perpetrate online violence against women and girls across the Commonwealth
• Research study to mapping
• A report to inform future Commonwealth Secretariat’s key programmes and possible UK-funded activity (‘interventions’) to promote human rights online and stop or greatly reduce online violence against women and girls in line with UK policy objectives.
• An evidence base for next steps in the cyber project; raise awareness with law ministers and other stakeholders

Activities

Activities will include cyber mapping exercises, research studies, launch of virtual training/workshops, needs assessments in target countries, development of training packages and guidance, engagement with stakeholders and the development of collaboration tools.