Concluding event of the OSCE regional project on combating cybercrime in Central Asia

On 11 June, the OSCE Transnational Threats Department organized the concluding conference for the first phase of its flagship regional capacity-building initiative on combating cybercrime in Central Asia at the Hofburg in Vienna. The conference took stock of the project’s achievements over the last three years, and highlighted the main outcomes and lessons learned from its implementation.

“We have come a long way. When we were developing this project back in 2019, there was not much attention paid to cybercrime threats in Central Asia and there was no targeted capacity-building by any international actors. Today the picture is very different. There is a clear recognition of the need for capacity-building by all criminal justice institutions across the region, and we have laid solid foundations for systematic and ongoing professional training and education for law enforcement in this area,” said Sami Ryhänen, Head of the Strategic Police Matters Unit at the OSCE Transnational Threats Department, during his opening remarks.

The event brough together around 50 representatives of the project’s beneficiary and donor countries, including 20 senior representatives of law enforcement and prosecutorial authorities and educational institutions from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In addition to reflecting on the main outcomes of the project, participants also discussed international co-operation on cybercrime and electronic evidence, the evolving cybercrime landscape in Central Asia, and future capacity-building needs in the region. Guest speakers included experts from Germany, Kazakhstan, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, INTERPOL Cybercrime Directorate, and the UNODC Global Programme on Cybercrime.

Following the conference, on 12 June the OSCE Transnational Threats Department organized a study visit to the Training Hub of the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) in Budapest, Hungary. The objective of the visit was to present to the participants from Central Asia good practices in professional training and capacity-building for law enforcement on combating cybercrime, and collecting and analyzing electronic evidence. Participants were briefed on CEPOL’s strategic approach to identifying training needs and its experiences and lessons learned from training activities in this thematic area.

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