After the Austrian police’s recent discovery of a child pornography network on the internet, Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis called on all member states to ratify the Council’s Cybercrime Convention. To date, 18 of 46 states have done so, including the United States.
For the text of the statement, see here. The complete text of the convention can be found here.
On February 7th, the Grand Chamber of the ECtHR heard the case Stoll v. Switzerland. The applicant, a Swiss national and journalist, alleges that his freedom of expression was violated by Switzerland. Mr. Stoll took possession of a confidential document written by a Swiss diplomat and published extracts of the document as well as articles highly critical of the Swiss diplomat’s conduct. He was subsequently sentenced under the Swiss Criminal Code for publishing “official confidential deliberationsâ€. For more details see here.
At a conference in Paris, representatives of 58 countries have committed themselves to ending the use of children in armed conflicts. Several UN resolutions and international legal standards with regard to the issue have already been agreed upon. However, conference participants observed, more needs to be done. The conference produced a set of guidelines for helping to further protect children from military recruitment.
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_38231.html
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_38218.html
Introduction*
The “forces of change” affecting the U.S. regulatory environment described in Ethiopis Tafara’s and Robert Peterson’s article A Blueprint for Cross-Border Access to US Investors: A New International Framework (“the Blueprint”) are challenging regulators across the world. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (“ASIC”) has been developing an approach to regulating cross-border trade in financial services, and this has found expression in a number of ASIC policy statements. This commentary, which explores possible approaches to such “forces of change,” is therefore given from the perspective of a regulatory authority that has articulated a position on regulating cross-border trade and is grappling with implementing that policy.
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* This excerpt does not include citations. To read the entire article, including supporting notes, please download the PDF.
Over the weekend, representatives from the Council of Europe participated in the 3rd World Congress against the death penalty. Notable participants included Secretary General Terry Davis, Parliamentary Assembly President René van der Linden, and Human Rights Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg.
For general information, see here. The text of President van der Linden’s speech can be found here.
The tourism ministers of ASEAN member nations met with their counterparts from China, Japan, and Korea on Tuesday during the ASEAN Tourism Forum, held this year in Singapore. The ministers noted a 6.8 percent growth in tourist arrivals to their countries in 2006 and discussed ways to further promote international travel to and within “ASEAN Plus Three†nations. Forum topics included youth exchange programs, joint promotion and marketing, and increased safety precautions. The Tourism Forum extends through Saturday.
