OSCE promotes single platform to verify ePassports

VIENNA, 27 May 2010 - An OSCE workshop to promote a safer and technologically advanced system to secure the integrity of electronic Passports (ePassports) started in Vienna today.

The workshop is focused on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Public Key Directory (PKD) - a single, multilateral technical platform designed to validate the authenticity of biographic and biometric data stored on the chips of ePassports at border control points. Currently 54 OSCE participating and Partner States are issuing ePassports.

"While ePassports are a major achievement for securing an individual's identity, these travel documents are only half as good if you can't prove that the chip has not been tampered with. Validating the chip with the PKD is a must before relying on chip data," said Eckart Brauer, the Chairperson of the ICAO PKD Board.

The aim of the one-and-a-half day workshop jointly organized by the OSCE, the ICAO Secretariat and the ICAO PKD Board is to improve travel document security by increasing participation in and the use of the ICAO PKD system by OSCE participating States.

"With more countries joining the PKD, international co-operation and efforts to validate data on ePassports will be considerably streamlined. This could potentially replace thousands of bilateral arrangements, which increasingly cannot cope with the volume of material being exchanged," said Kazakhstan's Deputy Permanent Representative Yerkin Akhinzhanov on behalf of the Chairmanship.

The workshop builds on the comprehensive OSCE mandate in the area of travel document security. The OSCE Action against Terrorism Unit in co-operation with ICAO and INTERPOL currently assists OSCE participating States with upgrading electronic security features of travel documents, enhancing handling and issuance procedures, facilitating the connection to INTERPOL databases and improving the detection of forged documents.

"The key message of the OSCE workshop is that the PKD is running on a sound technical, financial and judicial basis and is ready to host the whole ePassport-issuing community. As such the workshop helps to close the gap between ePassport issuing States and PKD members," added Brauer. "The more States join the PKD, the more the costs will be spread out, which will reduce the fees for each PKD member."