ECONOMIC COMMUNITY OF WEST AFRICAN STATES COMUNAUTE ECONOMIQUE DES ETATS DE L'AFRIQUE DE L'OUEST
SIXTY-SIXTH ORDINARY SESSION OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
Abuja, 17 – 19 August 2011
DIRECTIVE C/DIR. 1/08/11 ON FIGHTING CYBER CRIME WITHIN ECOWAS
THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS,
MINDFUL of Articles 10, 11 and 12 of the ECOWAS Treaty as amended, establishing the Council of Ministers and defining its composition and functions;
MINDFUL of Articles 27, 32 and 33 of the said Treaty on Science and Technology, and on the areas of Communication and Telecommunications;
MINDFUL of Article 57 of the said Treaty on judicial and legal cooperation, which provides that Member States undertake to promote judicial cooperation with a view to harmonizing judicial and legal systems;
MINDFUL of the ECOWAS Supplementary Act A/SA 1/01/07 of 19 January 2007 on the harmonization of the policies and regulatory framework of the Information and Communication Technology sector (ICT);
MINDFUL of the ECOWAS Supplementary Act A/SA.1/01/10 on Personal Data Protection within ECOWAS;
MINDFUL of the ECOWAS Supplementary Act A/SA.2/01/10 on Electronic Transaction within ECOWAS;
MINDFUL of Convention A/P1/7/92 of ECOWAS relating to the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters;
MINDFUL of Convention A/P1/94 relating to extradition;
MINDFUL of the cooperation as regards matters of criminal policing between the member States of ECOWAS which provides the pooling of expertise and sharing of experiences by security services with a view to establishing an efficient method of police investigations;
CONSIDERING that the use of information and communication technologies, among others, the internet or cybernetics, has generated an upsurge of reprehensible acts;
NOTING that cyber crime is a new phenomenon that requires the definition of specific offences that must be substantially linked with conventional offences such as theft, swindling, the receipt of stolen goods, blackmail, and damages caused by the use of the internet;
CONSCIOUS that criminal acts committed by means of internet require the identification of a legal regime and a suitable punishment because of the level of damage they generate;
DESIROUS to adopt a framework for criminal liability in order to effectively fight against cyber crime and provide for efficient and reliable international cooperation.
HAVING OBTAINED THE OPINION of the ECOWAS Parliament dated 23 May 2009;
PRESCRIBES:
CHAPTER I
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article 1 Definitions
For the purposes of this Directive:
Electronic communication means making communication available to the general public or a category of the public through a process of electronic or electromagnetic means, signs, signals, written documents, images, sounds or messages of any kind;
Computer data: any representation of facts, information or concepts in a form suitable for processing in a computer system;