Commonwealth Parliamentary Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Project: African Regional Workshop

Commonwealth Parliamentary Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Project: African Regional Workshop, Windhoek, Namibia

28 November – 01 December 2016,

Remarks by Dr. Josephine Ojiambo,

Deputy Secretary General

Protocols

-The Speaker of the Namibian Parliament, Professor Peter Katjavivi, MP

-Honourable Commonwealth Parliamentarians

-Mr Mbuso Dlamini, Cabinet Secretary, Govt of Swaziland

-Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

I bring greetings from our Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland.

I had planned to be here with you yesterday but for an emergency that arose over the weekend that required my personal attention. I hope you will accept my apologies in that regard.

It is a pleasure to greet you as you gather to work together in a Commonwealth and parliamentary context on the important issues of cybersecurity and the prevention of cybercrimein the beautiful city of Windhoek.

First of all, permit me to digress a bit to express my profound gratitude to our host, the Speaker of the Namibian Parliament, Hon. Prof. Peter Katjavivi MP, and his team, the Government and People of Namibia, for the warm welcome and cordialities accorded my team and to all of you, the Honourable Parliamentarians and our partners since their arrival in Windhoek. I have also been accorded the same Namibian hospitalities and courtesies since my arrival this afternoon.

We are indeed grateful to the Speaker for the excellent arrangement made for our comfort and for his very stimulating welcome remarks yesterday, which I have been reliably informed, set the tone for the for the conference. The efforts of Namibian Parliament towards crafting a legal frame work against Cybercrime are well noted and the Secretariat stands ready to assist in any way possible.

ThisAfrican Regional Parliamentary Cybersecurity and Cybercrime meeting is one of aseries ofthree Regional Conferences that have been developed for Commonwealth countries under the auspices of the Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative in collaboration with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, UK Chapter and the Organisation of the American States, with the financial support ofthe Foreign and Commonwealth Office ofthe UKGovernment. Meetings forparliamentarians of the Asia/Pacific and Caribbean regions were delivered in July 2016 in Perth, Australia and in October 2016, in Washington, respectively.

Our aim, collectively, is to deepen understanding of the immensity and pernicious nature of cybercrime, and to find ways of tackling it.

The more we live, work, shop and play in cyberspace, the more vulnerable we are to cybercriminals.

While the emergence of the ‘internet of things’ promises to multiply rapidly new opportunities for economic growth and social development, attempts to abuse such technology, and misapplications to nefarious ends, are sure to proliferate just as quickly.

The threats these pose are very real, and devastating consequences will most certainly result if we fail to act decisively to counter them.

We therefore need to think and act collaboratively to arrest such encroachment. It is critical that we cooperate to strengthen cybersecurity through legislative and technical interventions.

Points of weakness in any of our jurisdictions will swiftly be exploited, and once entry has been gained, pernicious networks rapidly invade and take hold with no regard for national boundaries.

The global connections that make the internet such a powerful tool for goodare too easily perverted and exploited to detrimental effect – as a tool for corruption, and as a channel for undermining the security of institutions and welfare of citizens in any of our member states.

Commonwealth kinship and affinity, and the similarity of our systems of law and governance,make for a richly fertile context within which tothink and act together, and to craft templates for legislation and regulation.

Given the diversity and geographical distribution of our Commonwealth membership, solutions and approaches which deliver successfully in any of our jurisdictions can then cascade to neighbours and regional counterparts.

It is for these reasons among others thatthe new Secretary General, Baroness Scotland, on assumption of office, announced the establishment of a Commonwealth Office of Criminal and Civil Justice Reform. The office will accelerate the enactment of legislationby developing model laws and toolkits for reform.

We are currently reviewing our Commonwealth Model Law on Computer and Computer-Related Crimes. It has already been of use to many member countries, and we hope to disseminate the updated model to our member countries to facilitate further the enactment of criminal legislation for an effective domestic response to cybercrime.

The Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative was developed to provide a coordinated and comprehensive response to cybercrime by assisting our member countries to develop appropriate legal frameworks, capacity and strategy.

It is made up of more than 35 international organisations including the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation, the Council of Europe, the International Telecommunications Union, Interpol, the Organisation of American States, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, together with the national agencies of member states.

Cybercrime is a scourge that is increasingly affecting many areas of economic and social life, to very detrimental effect. It destroys the many positive contributions, and undermines the trust of citizens.

By working together to devise tough laws and to implement robust policies the Commonwealth can provide global leadership for an effective and coordinated response to tackle cybercriminals and cybercrime.

I thank you for participating in this meeting, and wish you every success in your deliberations. I look forward with confidence to there being tangible and positive outcomes.

THE END

Page 1 of 4