Expert missions to Central Asia assess countries’ needs for handling cross-border electronic evidence requests for investigating online crimes, including terrorism

Understanding what Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan need to ensure they are well-equipped to handle electronic evidence across borders was the goal of four needs assessment missions organized by the OSCE in June and July 2025. These missions are part of the OSCE’s extra-budgetary project, PROJECT E-VIDENCE.

Each mission set out to support the countries in determining how to best align their national frameworks for cross-border electronic evidence requests with international standards, while also providing them with tailored solutions for their local needs and realities. Particular focus was placed on ensuring efficiency and legality of digital investigations as well as compliance with human rights obligations, which includes upholding due process, ensuring judicial oversight, and protecting privacy.

The mission team worked closely with representatives from Germany and the Netherlands — which are both donors to PROJECT E-VIDENCE — to organize and carry out the missions’ expert-level discussions in each country. There was also strong collaboration with and support from the OSCE's field operations across Central Asia.

During the respective meetings, Nico Schermers, the Netherlands’ Ambassador to Central Asia, underscored the importance of e-evidence in the investigation, trial, and prosecution of terrorists and how this contributes to strengthening multilateral co-operation and the international legal order.

York Schuegraf, Germany’s Ambassador to Tajikistan, emphasized the challenges many countries face with obtaining e-evidence across jurisdictions and the role of meaningful, constructive dialogue to strengthen these cross-border requests.

Speaking about the impact of the missions’ tailored expertise, Martin van Buuren, the Netherlands’ Deputy Ambassador to Central Asia, highlighted how this expertise strengthens legal and institutional resilience for addressing the digital ambitions of terrorist actors.

The aim of these missions and PROJECT E-VIDENCE is to help countries lawfully and swiftly get electronic evidence from foreign jurisdictions for investigations while maintaining full respect for human rights. They also place an emphasis on gender and intergenerational inclusivity.

This work is essential to effectively dealing with the growing number and increasing sophistication of cyber-enabled crimes and the use of technologies by terrorists to advance their goals.

Missions

In Kazakhstan from 11 to 13 June, mission experts met with representatives from parliament, law enforcement, the judiciary, and the tech sector, as well as held bilateral meetings with international partners and national institutions. Their discussions included how the country can best incorporate tools from the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime into its legal and institutional frameworks, and ways to further harmonize legal and capacity-building efforts in the area of electronic evidence.

The needs assessment mission was complemented by a two-day training course with the mission team from 9-10 June to further build law enforcement officers’ practical capacities for handling electronic evidence requests. In Tajikistan from 16 to 18 June, the mission involved an expert-level meeting and bi-lateral consultations that covered intrusiveness associated with e-evidence and how national procedures can be harmonized with international obligations. Clear and established operating procedures were a recurring theme during the discussions and one of the key takeaways for project’s follow up in September 2025.

In Kyrgyzstan from 2 to 4 July, the mission team focused on a draft law on requesting electronic evidence across borders for investigating online crimes including terrorist offences, which is being developed by a working group set up by the project during an earlier expert-level meeting in March 2025. They discussed with national representatives how to effectively set up legal frameworks, technical capacities, and cross-institutional co-ordination in preparation for the law’s expected adoption by the end of 2025.

In Turkmenistan from 9 to 11 July, discussions between the mission team and local representatives from a broad range of government institutions and law enforcement bodies centred on ways to improve the efficiency, security and legal certainty of procedures used to request electronic evidence from service providers based in foreign jurisdictions. This was complemented by a two-day training course from 7-8 July involving the mission team to assist law enforcement officers with developing their practical skills in effectively handling cross-border evidence requests.

A series of outcomes and tailored recommendations by the mission teams will be shared respectively with each country. These outputs will serve as the groundwork for the project’s next phase of expert-level meetings across Central Asia in autumn 2025, which, together, will feed into a regional workshop planned for November 2025.