The ESCWA Cyber Legislation Digest
The Status of Cyber Legislation on Key issues
e-Signature Laws: These can be considered as the most commonly implemented laws in the
Arab world. Countries that have already issued such laws include: the United Arab Emirates,
the Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Bahrain, Tunis, Algeria, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
Syria, the Sultanate of Oman, Qatar, Egypt and Morocco.
e-Transactions and e-Commerce: laws related to e-Transactions are well developed in the
Arab world. As for e-Payments, the ESCWA region has not yet covered such issues, with the
exception of Lebanon and Yemen. In Lebanon, the central bank issued various decrees
related to the regularization of electronic payments and exchange. Additionally in Yemen, a
special law was issued to cover electronic banking transactions.
Figure 1 shows the status of individual Arab countries as far as electronic transactions, eSignature and e-Commerce laws are concerned.
Figure 1: Status of e-Signature, e-Transaction and e-Commerce Laws in selected Arab countries
Country / Law
e-signature
e-transaction
e-commerce
Algeria
Draft law
Draft law
Draft law
Bahrain
Egypt
Iraq
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Yes, Law 28/2002
Yes, Law 15/2004
Yes, Law 78, 2012
Yes, Law 85/2001
Draft Law
Draft Law
..
Yes, Law 28, 2002
Yes, Law 28, 2002
Draft Law
Draft Law
Yes, Law 78, 2012
Yes, Law 78, 2012
Yes, Law 85/2001
..
Draft Law
..
Draft Law
Draft Law
..
..
Yes, Law 53Morocco
Yes, Law 53-05/2007
Yes, Law 53-05/2007
05/2007
Oman
Yes, Law 69/2008
Yes, Law 69/2008
..
Palestine
Draft Law
Draft Law
..
Qatar
Yes, Law 16/2010
Yes, Law 16/2010
Yes, Law 16/2010
Saudi Arabia
Yes, Law 18 /2007
Yes, Law 18 /2007
..
The Sudan
Yes, 2007
Yes, 2007
Yes, 2007
Syrian Arab Republic
Yes, Law 4/2009
Draft Law
Draft Law
Tunisia
Yes, Law 83/2000
Yes, Law 83/2000
Yes, Law 83/2000
United Arab Emirates
Yes, Law 1/2006
Yes, Law 1/2006
Yes, Law 1/2006
Partly, e-payment law
Partly, e-payment
Yemen
..
40/2006
law 40/2006
Source: Reports of the ESCWA project on cyber legislation
http://isper.escwa.un.org/FocusAreas/CyberLegislation/Projects/tabid/161/language/enUS/Default.aspx
Protection of Personal Records: this has not been addressed at all in the ESCWA region,
except for the Emirate of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. As for countries in North Africa,
both Tunis and the Kingdom of Morocco have issued such laws. This is a key issue as the
protection of personal records is critical while implementing e-Government and eCommerce.
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