The ESCWA Cyber Legislation Digest         Most of these countries did not allow for an integrated package of laws that fit under the proper scope of cyber legislation; They did not have a comprehensive set of laws that cover various foundations of ICT operations; There have been few regional initiatives or special projects under cyber legislation; Coordination and regional integration of cyber legislation was found lacking; There are wide gaps between in the maturity of cyber legislation in the region. For example, the Kingdom of Bahrain has implemented various laws and regulatory decrees related to electronic transactions and commerce as well as the protection of intellectual properties, yet countries like Iraq and Kuwait have not addressed these issues at all, despite them having draft laws that have not been implemented yet; Most countries in the region have not covered the legal aspects of electronic payments with the exception of Lebanon and Yemen; Most countries in the region have also not covered the issues of consumer protection in cyberspace with the exception of Lebanon and Tunis; Most countries in the region have not covered issues of personal data protection in cyberspace. In the workshop conducted by ESCWA in Cairo (March 2012), Dr. Younes Arab presented the paper “Applying ESCWA Cyber Legislation Directives”. This document provides a useful overview of the potential obstacles to a comprehensive implementation of cyber legislation in the Arab world3. 3 http://isper.escwa.un.org/FocusAreas/CyberLegislation/Projects/tabid/161/language/en-US/Default.aspx 6