Supporting the global efforts in strengthening the safety, security and resilience of Cyberspace, the Commonwealth Cybersecurity Forum 2013, organised by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation. The ceremonial opening examined how Cyberspace could be governed and utilised in a manner to foster freedom and entrepreneurship, while protecting individuals, property and the state, leading to socio-economic development. Speakers of this session, Mr Mario Maniewicz, Chief, Department of Infrastructure, Enabling Environment and E-Applications, ITU; Mr David Pollington, Director, International Security Relations, Microsoft; Mr Alexander Seger, Secretary, Cybercrime Convention Committee, Council of Europe; Mr Nigel Hickson, Vice President, Europe, ICANN and Mr Pierre Dandjinou, Vice President, Africa, ICANN, added their perspectives on various approaches to Cybergovernance, with general agreement on the role Cyberspace could play to facilitate development equitably and fairly across the world. Hosted by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of Cameroon together with the Telecommunications Regulatory Board of Cameroon and backed by partners and industry supporters including ICANN, Council of Europe, Microsoft, MTN Cameroon, AFRINIC and Internet Watch Foundation, the Commonwealth Cybersecurity Forum 2013 seeks to broaden stakeholder dialogue to facilitate practical action in Cybergovernance and Cybersecurity, some of which will be reflected in the CTO’s own work programmes under its Cybersecurity agenda.

2.  Introduction
 1. What is cyber legislation?
 2. Cyber legislation harmonization process in Central
Africa
 The sub-region concerned;
 Partner international organizations in the harmonization
of cyber legislation in Central Africa;
 ECCAS frame of reference for the harmonization;
 Retracing previous stages.
 3. Conclusion

3.  Harmonization of legislation can be defined as a legal
integration phenomenon whereby official expertise of two or
more countries are transferred to an international organization
endowed with decision-making powers and supranational or
supra state competencies, with a view to providing a single and
coherent legal package encompassing the laws that will set the
background for the required social and economic objectives of
the Member States. To achieve this, the States can either
choose the Convention’s technique or that of the Model law.
 Harmonization or coordination is the approximation of rules of
different origins to make them consistent by reducing or
eliminating the discrepancies and inconsistencies between them
so as to reach the results that are “compatible with each other
and with the desired community objectives”.

4. Cyber legislation is the term used today to refer to legal
provisions dealing with such issues as:
 The use of electronic signatures;
 The fight against cybercrime;
 The protection of personal information;
 Data secrecy;
 Protection of intellectual property ;
 Control of digital identities, among others….
In a nutshell, cyber legislation is all about the thematic areas
that will be addressed at this forum.

5. Several African organisations are rallying to work on a cyber-legislation
framework and harmonization of legislation on electronic communications.
 The sub-region concerned
The Sub-region concerned by the harmonization of cyberlegislation is the
Economic Community of Central African States/ECCAS.
 The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) is an
international organization created to promote the economic, social and
cultural development of the African continent, in order to set up
regional structures that could progressively lead to a common market.
 ECCAS stemmed from the Lagos Plan of Action of April 1980 to lead
the Central African regional integration process. It is an institution
recognized by the African Union.

6. The organization brings together ten member States :
 Angola ;
 Burundi ;
 Cameroon ;
 Central Africa;
 Chad;
 Congo ;
 Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ;
 Equatorial Guinea;
 Gabon ;
 Sao Tome and Principe
The countries in bulk are equally members of the Economic and Monetary
Community of Central Africa (CEMAC/EMCAC).

7.  Partner international organizations in the harmonization of cyber
legislation in Central Africa;
 The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA)
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) launched its project « African Information Society
Initiative » (AISI) in May 1996. This initiative consisted in helping African countries create an
environment in which knowledge is considered as being critical to economic growth and bridge the
digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world. ECA also implemented the « National
Information and Communication Infrastructure » (NICI) policy.
 The African Union (AU) Commission
During the extraordinary meeting of Johannesburg in 2009, the « Olivier Tambo Declaration »
adopted by the Conference of African Ministers in charge of communication and information
technologies entrusted the Commission of the African Union (AU) to draw up, together with ECA
within the framework of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), a convention on cyber-
legislation that meets the needs of the continent and complies with good legal international
practices on electronic transactions, cyber-security and the protection of personal information.
In September 2012 in Khartoum, Sudan, during the 4th ordinary session of the biannual conference
of African ministers in charge of communication and information technologies, the African
commission was requested to submit the African Union draft Convention on cybersecurity for
adoption by the Heads of States, in accordance with the internal rules of the African Union.

8.  The International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
The International Telecommunications (ITU) Union partnered with the
International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats
(IMPACT), a collaboration between the private sector and public
authorities, to implement a programme to combat cybercrime. 145
of the 191 Member States of ITU have now joined the programme.
The HIPSSA (Harmonization of the ICT Policies in Sub-Sahara
Africa) project of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
and the European Commission, with involvement of the AU
commission and ECA is contributing to the implementation of
actions identified as priorities in the AU reference framework to
“establish harmonized policies and legal and regulatory frameworks
at the regional and continental levels” in the field of electronic
communications.

9.  The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC)
Following the workshop on the role of information and communication
technologies (ICTs) in the promotion of regional integration that held in
Yaoundé in September 2007, ECA contributed to the 2010 e-CEMAC
strategy drawn up by the member States of CEMAC, and subsequently
proposed to extend the strategy to the other member States of ECCAS.
A key component of the strategy is the development and implementation
of an action plan to establish sub regional guidelines and introduce
reforms in national policy frameworks.
In 2008, upon the recommendation of the Ministers in charge of
telecommunications who met in Brazzaville in November 2008, the Council
of Ministers mandated the President of the CEMAC Commission to take
necessary measures to “develop (…) a directive on cyber security”.

10.  The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS)
At the second meeting of the Ministers in charge of telecommunications and ICTs
of ECCAS Member States held in April 22, 2010 in N’djamena, the statutory
Council of Ministers of ECCAS was requested to :
- Submit for the approval of the ECCAS Conference of Heads of State and
Governments, four guidance documents including one on the harmonization of
national policies and regulations and action plans for ICT development in
Central Africa;
- Instruct the Secretary General of ECCAS to immediately work out, in
collaboration with ECA and ITU, model laws and regulations relating to:
* Electronic transactions;
* The protection of personal information;
* The fight against cyber crime.

11. * Retracing previous stages.
Libreville, Gabon from 28 November to 02 December 2011
In response to the requests by the Secretary General of ECCAS and the CEMAC
Commission, with the technical support of ECA and ITU, a workshop on the
harmonization of a legal framework for cybersecurity in Central Africa was organized in
Libreville, Gabon. Three draft Model Laws were discussed at the workshop concerning:
The protection of personal information, providing the States with a legal framework that
will ensure effective protection;
Electronic transactions, providing the States with efficient legal framework to regulate
transactions and protect the users ;
Fight against cybercrime, providing Member States with a substantial and procedural
repressive arsenal, to prevent the outburst of cybercrime.
These preliminary draft Model Laws will be adopted, subject to any subsequent
amendments thereto.

12. Douala, Cameroon from 26 to 27 July 2012
The Secretary General of ECCAS organized a regional workshop, in
collaboration with the ministry in charge of ICTs in Cameroon, backed by
ECA and the International Telecommunications Union. The aim was to
validate the three draft model laws above for adoption by the statutory
bodies of ECCAS.
Libreville, Gabon from 25 to 26 February 2013
The Central African Sub Regional Bureau of the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa organized an ad-hoc meeting of the
experts group working on the harmonization of laws on information and
communication technologies on the theme: “compliance framework for
digital economy”, in collaboration with the Economic Community for
Central African States (ECCAS) and the International Telecommunications
Union.

13. The objective of the meeting was to establish a notice of
compliance showing how the three draft model laws on cyber
security validated by the experts of the Member States of
ECCAS correlate with the draft African Union (AU) Convention
on cyber security. The said notice was based on the analysis
of a correlation table between the terms of the draft
Convention and the consolidated provisions of the three draft
model laws.
The study revealed a 95% level of conformity. In delivering
the outcome of the study of conformity, the ad hoc meeting
endorsed the recommendations and observations with a view
to improving the level of conformity of the draft model laws
to be tabled for validation at the meeting of ICT ministers
of ECCAS scheduled for 2013.

14. It is important that countries harmonize their legal
framework, to combat cybercrime and facilitate
international cooperation. Cameroon, Congo and
Gabon has already theirs agencies in charge of
cyber security installed.
Though legislation on personal data is not yet
available in Cameroon, there is a law governing the
security of electronic communication networks and
information systems that defines and criminalizes
offences relating to the use of information and
communication technologies. A law regulating
electronic commerce was also promulgated in
December 2010.

15. THANK YOU !
Justin Aimé TSANGA EBODE
Deputy Director of the statutory Watch at the Direction of Legal Affairs and
International Cooperation in the Telecommunication Regulatory board of
Cameroon.
tsangajustin@yahoo.fr/tsangajustina@yahoo.fr +237 9977 31 00