For the last three days I have been in Johannesburg for the UNODC/CTED/IAP/ComSec Meeting of Regional Cybercrime Focal Points and Central Authorities. This was an opportunity to present the UN/IAP Practical Guide for Requesting E-Evidence Across Borders and apply the tools in a real-time practical exercise. This participant led exercise tested the use of the…

For the last two weeks I have been part of a team assessing the training needs of the Special Tribunals in Dhaka adjudicating terrorism, money laundering, corruption and cybercrime matters. With a population of 160 million, Bangladesh has the eighth largest population in the world. Dhaka alone has a population of 9 million – the…

The United Kingdom will rely more on Interpol Alerts if they leave the European Union without a deal, which a 2019 Study commissioned by the European Parliament found to be lacking in legal safeguards and accountability mechanisms. Interpol, the international police organization, is a necessary tool for trans-border police cooperation for terrorism and organized crime…

UNODC  ‘Lawful Access to Digital Data (e-evidence) Across Borders’ Project Commonwealth Secretariat international electronic evidence consultant Council of Europe, CyberSouth Project EU funded Accountability, Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Project (ARAP) in Ghana EU funded Regional Law Enforcement Project for the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda…

As part of the UNODC, UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate and the International Association of Prosecutors, ‘Accessing Electronic Evidence Across Borders Project’, I attended Malaysia for a training workshop. Along with presentations from representatives from Facebook and Uber, I lectured on the CLOUD Act, the proposed EU Rules on E-Evidence and application of model forms for…

After 20 days on the road, through six countries and with almost 20,000 miles covered, it was a joy to end my journey in Dresden – the “Florence of the Elbe” From the opulent Baroque style Zwinger, dubbed one of the greatest “complete works of art” ever created, to the Frauenkirche church, all but destroyed…

With Parliament focussed on Brexit – you may have missed the Conservative Chief Whip’s letter confirming the second reading of the Crime (Overseas Production Orders) Bill on Monday 3 December 2018. The Bill applies to production of stored electronic data by an overseas service provider, once an International Agreement is in place between the U.K….

“Qui n’avance pas, recule!” The Third CrimEx for EuroMed Justice IV was hosted by the French Ministry of Justice in Paris on 24-26 October. The purpose of the CrimEx was to hear presentations on the legal and gap analyses of laws, procedures and challenges to international cooperation in the Southern Partner Countries (SPCs) of Algeria,…

In a conference room in Uganda six months ago, the EU team contemplated the next step to establish the Greater Horn of Africa Mutual Legal Assistance Network. We decided upon an ambitious strategy to have an equivalent of the European Judicial Network – with a Fiches and Contact Points. To be proactive rather than reactive….

After completing my twentieth mission to the Greater Horn of Africa for the EU Law Enforcement Project – I have learnt it can be the smallest things that have the greatest impact. Communication and trust are vital in all walks of life and especially in international judicial cooperation. You can be the best lawyer –…

The EU Regional Law Enforcement Project in the Greater Horn of Africa and Yemen returned to Uganda for the third round of international co-operation workshops – this time on extradition. In 2010, 74 people were killed and 71 others injured, whilst they watched the World Cup final in Kampala, in a terrorist attack by Al-Shabaab….

A minor change that begins a major development …… I was in Uganda this past week to review their Mutual Legal Assistance Fiches, Extradition Fiches, International Enquiries Manual and Extradition Guide – as part of a team of experts for the EU Law Enforcement Project in the Greater Horn of Africa. Moving forward, these tools…

Illegal Mining Ghana is a country with a bountiful supply of minerals – the mining industry of Ghana accounted for 5.7% of the country’s GDP and generated an annual revenue of US$35 billion in 2014. This extraction of minerals comes with a significant environmental impact – predominantly from illegal small-scale miners – known as ‘galamseys’….

For the last three days I have co-chaired a working group of Romanian, German, Belgian and Italian Prosecutors as part of a project to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Romanian DIICOT (Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism). The focus has been judicial cooperation in the EU and the development of a practical Handbook…

With my Ethiopian friends in Uganda – በኡጋንዳ ከሚኖሩ ኢትዮጵያዊ ወዳጆቼ ጋር I have spent the last week in Uganda, working with twenty experts from the Greater Horn of Africa, to develop their international judicial cooperation skills. As well as preparing a roadmap for the future of the Greater Horn of Africa International Judicial Cooperation…