Council of Europe activities related to information technology, data protection and computer crime

Abstract

Abstract The Council of Europe, the oldest European intergovernmental organization, recognised early on the importance of a quick and adequate response to the challenge of computer technology and the risk of its misuse. In 1989, seeking the harmonization of the law and practice in its member States and to improve international legal co‐operation, the Council of Europe adopted a recommendation and a report on computer‐related crime. These constitute, perhaps not the first, but certainly the most comprehensive, comparative analysis of the relevant substantive criminal law questions. Then followed another recommendation, in 1995, on criminal procedural law problems connected with the use of information technology. With the arrival of the cyberspace, the Council of Europe will start negotiating, in 1997, an international treaty on information technology crimes, addressing questions of criminal substantive law, procedural law and international cooperation. To safeguard the privacy of individuals and to ensure ...