The ESCWA Cyber Legislation Digest
The main aim of the meeting was to promote the advantages of the Harmonization Project.
The meeting became an open forum for participants and allowed them to review, discuss,
evaluate and propose improvements to the six directives of cyber legislation.
The main topics that were discussed include:
the overall objective of the project and its activities;
the six directives of the Harmonization Project;
the first draft of the general guidelines for the harmonization of cyber legislation at
the regional level;
the status of cyber legislation in the Arab region.
The outcomes of the meeting included:
A set of recommendations for the improvement of the six directives for cyber
legislation.
A set of recommendations for the improvement of the guidelines for cyber
legislation.
The initial definition of a regional network of experts and institutions that specialize
in the field of cyber legislation.
Finalization of the directives, taking into account the points of view of the various
experts.
5.10 2011 (September): Second Steering Committee Meeting
ESCWA organized a second Steering Committee meeting on the 13 th of September 2011 at
the ESCWA headquarters in Beirut.
During the meeting, participants proposed a number of collaboration tracks with their
related organizations. The overall recommendations of the meeting were to:
1. Consider the ESCWA cyber legislation directives as a reference for lawyers and
legislators.
2. Strengthen the collaboration between ESCWA and the League of Arab States.
3. Advocate the ESCWA cyber legislation directives at the highest political levels in the
region, especially at the level of the Arab Telecommunication and Information
Council of Ministers.
4. Organize specialized workshops to build cyber legislation capacity and the use of the
directives.
5. Emphasize the importance of ESCWA’s cooperation with international and regional
organizations working in cyber legislation (the League of Arab States, the
International Telecommunications Union (Arab Regional Bureau), the Economic
Commission for Africa North Africa Office (ECA-NA) and the Arab Administrative
Development Organization (ARADO)).
6. Develop new and adapted strategies to sustain efforts in developing cyber legislation
in the Arab region.
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