Belize Engages in More Talks About Strengthening the Country’s Cybersecurity

Belize commits to being more proactive in safeguarding the country’s cybersecurity. The Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ramon “Monchi” Cervantes recently attended the Forum of Presidents of Legislative Powers of Central America, the Caribbean Basin and Mexico, also known as FOPREL. The forum which was held in Costa Rica included two meetings which were the Joint 13th Meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Citizen Security and the Administration of Justice and the 6th meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee on Financial and Budgetary Affairs. The meetings surrounded the promotion of cybercrime legislation and engaging in dialogue about the different challenge each participating countries face. Minister Cervantes spoke to Love News and shared some of the important points that were highlighted in the discussions

Ramon “Monchi” Cervantes, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “And also to ensure that legislation is put in place to protect the citizenry and to protect against cyber crime and also to get the people to, the countries then to promote and to act in a way as to enhance our international cooperation between countries when it comes to cyber crime come out of this topic of cyber crime and electronic evidence. Costa Rica just had a cyber attack I think earlier this year when the government, they had a cyber attack and so it’s something – and then on the public level also you have daily attacks on maybe identity theft, credit card fraud you know different types of cyber crimes, kidnappings. It’s the commitment of Belize to promote laws against cyber crime and the use of electronic evidence to prosecute such crimes and to actually include it in our legislation and to promote the international cooperation with other countries They have the Budapest convention which deals with that and many countries have signed on to that and they’re looking for the promotion of that I think in our case it is being reviewed all the details of the convention are being reviewed so that was the essence of the resolution. And thanking the government of Costa Rica for hosting us so the essence is based on cyber crime and electronic evidence.” 

Minister Cervantes says the idea is to achieve a clear understanding of the requirements of national cybercrime and electronic evidence legislation, which considers the respect for the rule of law, human rights, data protection and the harmonization with international standards. 

Ramon “Monchi” Cervantes, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: “It’s the commitment of Belize to promote laws against cyber crime and the use of electronic evidence to prosecute such crimes and to actually included in legislation and to promote international cooperation with other countries. They have the Budapest convention which deals with that and many countries have signed onto that and they’re looking for the promotion of that I think in our case it is being reviewed, all the details of the convention are being reviewed so that was the essence of the resolution. I’m thinking the government of Costa Rica for hosting us so the essence is based on cyber crime and electronic evidence. Now some cases of cyberbullying for example have actually been criminalized and so yes Belize is moving ahead on that. It is very very important because the whole world and in our case countries being digitalized day by day we are moving towards full digitization in immigration we just launched the new passport system, the electronic passport issuance and control system. We have passed laws on electronic signatures and the acceptance of electronic documents as legal as being legal so it is very very important because I don’t see I mean we the world is just moving ahead and digitization there’s no turning back.” 

Cayo West Area Representative, Jorge Espat, also attended the forum which was funded by the Costa Rican government.