Casablanca – Moroccan Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi has signed the second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime on Thursday in Strasbourg.
On November 17, 2021, the first accord protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime was formally ratified after nearly four years of discussions (September 2017-May 2021).
The Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention on Combating Cybercrime was opened for signature yesterday. It was agreed upon on the margins of a two-day international meeting on Strengthening Cooperation and Disclosure of Electronic Evidence (12-13 May) at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.
The meeting was arranged in collaboration with the Italian presidency of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers, with the presence of the Council of Europe’s secretary-general, the Italian Minister of Justice, ministers, ambassadors, and representatives from diplomatic organizations and missions.
“This convention, adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on November 8, 2001, has harmonized the criminal policy of Member States in the field of cybercrime and facilitated coordination between the various national authorities in the fight against cybercrime,” said the Moroccan minister.
According to Ouahbi, cybercrime is a transnational crime that disregards national borders, and it is in this context that the Budapest Convention was created to provide answers and solutions.
As a result, the Minister called for a coordinated effort to work on the real execution of the Second Additional Protocol’s obligations and the establishment of its procedures.
He emphasized that Morocco would continue to be present in order to accomplish these aims and that it is fully prepared to collaborate with other nations in order to improve cyber security for all state parties.
Ouahbi pointed to the “growing threat of cybercrime in the world and its social, economic, and psychological repercussions.” He confirmed Morocco‘s efforts on the topic, taking into account “its regional context, where armed terrorist groups using cyberspace as a tool to promote their calling for bloodshed and intimidation of innocents.”
The Moroccan minister added that “Morocco has expressed its willingness to engage with the member states of the Budapest Convention through its accession to this mechanism officially on October 1, 2018..”
To reinforce Morocco’s commitment to the never-ending fight against cybercrime, the minister mentioned that his nation signed the first supplementary protocol to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, which criminalizes racist and xenophobic conduct carried out via computer networks.
Since then, Ouahbi noted that Morocco was eager to express its effective and serious involvement in the fight against cybercrime in all its forms. It has developed a draft criminal law criminalizing many acts related to cybercrime, which until recently posed significant challenges to Moroccan justice.
