Human rights compliance essential in cybercrime investigations: new OSCE training guide

The OSCE Transnational Threats Department launched a new training guide on human rights compliance in cybercrime investigations.

Cybercrimes and other crimes involving electronic evidence can have implications for human rights such as the right to privacy, a fair trial, freedom of expression, and the protection of property. The guide raises criminal justice practitioners’ awareness of that fact and helps them uphold human rights in their daily investigative work.

“This publication aims to build participating States’ capacity to address emerging criminal threats, including those posed by new technologies. It helps ensure that the work of criminal justice practitioners across the OSCE is conducted in line with international human rights standards,” underlined Alena Kupchyna, OSCE Co-ordinator of Activities to Address Transnational Threats.

“Upholding human rights is an obligation under international law and is crucial for the effective investigation and prosecution of these types of crimes. Human rights compliance is necessary to access electronic evidence, ensure its admissibility in court, and to build public trust – all essential components of a criminal justice response,” said Rainer Franosch, Deputy Director-General for Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at the Ministry of Justice of the German Federal State of Hesse.

This was echoed by Robert Golobinek, Secretary at the Directorate for Criminal Law and Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia, who added: “We have a strong framework of international human rights safeguards but to make them effective in practice it is critical to ensure that criminal justice practitioners have the necessary knowledge and understanding of these issues. Tools such as this guide play an important role in building awareness of human rights considerations”.

The launch – held on the margins of the 2023 OSCE Annual Meeting of Heads of Law Enforcement/Security Co-operation Departments – brought together staff working on police-related activities from the OSCE Field Operations and Institutions.

The guide was developed under the extra-budgetary project “Capacity Building on Combating Cybercrime in Central Asia” funded by the United States, Germany and the Republic of Korea.