Education of criminal justice actors in Central Asia on cybercrime and digital evidence discussed at regional meeting in Tashkent

Approaches and methodologies for education on cybercrime and digital evidence for criminal justice practitioners were at the centre of a two-day regional meeting held on 9 and 10 March 2023 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The event, organized by the OSCE Transnational Threats Department and the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Uzbekistan, brought together over 25 senior representatives from law enforcement educational institutions and agencies across Central Asia. Various good practice examples on cybercrime education from across the OSCE area were presented during the meeting. Expert speakers shared their experiences and included representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office of Estonia, the European Cybercrime Training and Education Group, the Norwegian Police University College, the Cybercrime Bureau of the Korean National Police Agency, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training, University College Dublin Centre for Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Investigation, and Hesse State University for Public Management and Security.

“Central Asia, as many other parts of the world, has been undergoing rapid digitalization. Every criminal justice actor needs to understand the basics of digital evidence and the role of digital technologies in facilitating or conducting criminal activities. Our law enforcement academies need to adapt to these new challenges and we need to ensure we have a structured and systematic education in this field,“ said Evgeniy Kolenko, acting head of the Law Enforcement Academy of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The meeting brought together heads and deputy heads of key educational institutions in Central Asia. These included the Almaty Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Law Enforcement Academy under the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan; the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Training Centre of the Prosecutor General’s Office and Institute of the State Committee of National Security of the Kyrgyz Republic; the Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Training Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Turkmenistan; and the Law Enforcement Academy and the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The meeting was organized as part of the “Capacity building on combating cybercrime in Central Asia” project, which is funded by Germany, the Republic of Korea, and the United States of America.