If the European Foreign Affairs Ministers do adopt the
Convention, regarded as a formality after its approval by the
Deputy Ministers, it will be formally signed by the 43 members of
the Council of Europe at the Council’s next meeting in Budapest in
late November.
The Convention is only legally effective when at least five
countries, three of which must be Council of Europe members, ratify
it. This ratification process, which will involve some changes to
domestic laws, is expected to take at least two years. Some
non-European countries, including the US, Australia, New Zealand
and Japan, are also party to the Convention.
The Convention aims to harmonise laws on crimes such as hacking
and on-line piracy, fraud and child pornography. The Convention
faced much criticism from privacy groups during its long drafting
process. Council of Europe representatives dismissed these
criticisms, dubbing the Convention as “the first ever international
treaty to address criminal law and procedural aspects of various
types of criminal behaviour directed against computer systems,
networks or data and other types of similar misuse.”
