The ESCWA Cyber Legislation Digest Around 18 participants from 10 ESCWA member countries attended this workshop. They were made up of legal consultants and researchers, judges and lawyers, ICT and cyberspace experts as well as representatives of ministries of communications, Justice and specialized non-governmental organizations were involved. The workshop essentially presented the templates and their main objectives. It offered training on the uses and application of the cyber legislation templates. It also introduced their application in 2 member countries of ESCWA (Syria and the Kingdom of Bahrain). The participants called for the harmonization of cyber legislation across the region in order to:    5.8 Facilitate the movement of merchandise and data across borders. Encourage the creation and proliferation of an information society. Spread the benefits of copyright protection laws to signatory countries. 2009 (December): First Steering Committee Meeting During December 2009, ESCWA organized the first meeting of the project’s Steering Committee, which consisted of members from various regional and international organizations involved in the development of cyber legislation in the Arab region. The objectives of the meeting were to confer about the strategic implications and directions related to the implementation of the activities of this project. They would then be able to select those that are most attuned with the goals of the project. The overall recommendations of the meeting were to: 1. Highlight the importance of producing a set of directives for the harmonization of cyber legislation in Arab countries. This set should cover the six main areas of cyber legislation. 2. To make use of the European Union’s experience in cyber legislation for the development of a set of directives, guidelines and the models for the harmonization of cyber legislation. 3. To utilize the cyber legislation results and benefit from the experience of regional and international initiatives by such organizations as: the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the Economic Commission for Africa North Africa Office (ECA-NA) and the League of Arab States. 5.9 2011 (February): Expert Group Meeting The "Expert Group Meeting (EGM) on the Regional Harmonization of Cyber Legislation" 10 took place on 16-17 February 2011 in Beirut, Lebanon. 10 http://www.escwa.un.org/information/meetingdetails.asp?referenceNum=1427E 39