Strengthening the country’s capacities to combat cybercrime and facilitating accession to the Budapest Convention were the objectives of the High-Level Meeting organised by the Ministry of Government of Guatemala, together with the GLACY-e and Octopus projects.
In April 2020, Guatemala was officially invited to accede to the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention) and in view of completing this process and fully benefitting from the mechanisms and tools provided by this treaty, Guatemalan authorities are working to ensure that domestic legislation is harmonised with the international standards.
In this respect, the draft law promoted by the Ministry of Government, currently under debate in the Congress of Guatemala, is aimed at achieving this goal and the Council of Europe will continue working with national stakeholders for bringing the Guatemalan legislation in line with the Budapest Convention.
The High-Level Meeting was attended by representatives of various government agencies and enjoyed the presence of the Ambassador of the European Union in Guatemala. During the event, the Chair of the Cybercrime Convention Committee (T-CY) emphasized the importance of cybercrime legislation as a cornerstone for strengthening national capacities to address cybercrime.
On this occasion the T-CY Chair and the representative of the Council of Europe also met with the President of the Guatemalan Congress to discuss the way forward to finalise the accession to the Budapest Convention.
