Senate concurs on ratification of international cybercrime treaty

The Senate has adopted a resolution expressing its concurrence to the ratification of an international agreement that facilitates multilateral cooperation and enhanced collective capability to suppress cybercrime.

According to Senate Resolution Number 616 sponsored by Sen. Loren Legarda, the Convention on Cybercrime, signed in Budapest, Hungary on November 23, 2001 and signed by Pres. Rodrigo Duterte on December 9, 2016, “remains the sole binding international legal mechanism adopted by countries to address the threats posed by cybercrime”.

“The Convention takes into account the existing conventions on cooperation in the penal field, as well as similar treaties which exist between member states,” the resolution said.

“The present Convention is intended to supplement those conventions in order to make criminal investigations and proceedings concerning criminal offenses related to computer systems and data more effective, as well as to enable the more efficient collection of evidence in electronic form of a criminal offense,” the resolution added.

According to Legarda, a major feature of the Convention is the track towards the harmonization of domestic legal procedures of state parties, with the intention of, among others, addressing the emergence of so-called “safe havens”.

These “areas”, she said, are created when certain activities are not criminalized in a specific country. This results in individuals and/or organized groups being able to act with impunity in committing offenses in these countries.

“This treaty is very important to protect our people from cybercrime especially since the country is the number one haven for those committing child pornography,” Legarda stressed.

Source: Newbytes.ph