New June 2001: European Committee on Crime Problems (2001) 'Committee of Experts on Crime in Cyberspace (PC-CY)', Final Draft Convention on Cyber-crime,’ CDPC (2001) 17, Strasbourg, 29 June 2001. Note also the Final Draft Explanatory Report to the Convention on Cyber-Crime.

Council of Europe, Draft Cyber-Crime Convention, version no 24, 24 November, 2000.Important addition to this new version is 

Article 21 - Interception of content data

1. Each Party shall adopt such legislative and other measures as may be necessary, for the purpose of criminal investigations or
proceedings related to the range of serious offences to be determined by domestic law, to empower its competent authorities to:

a. collect or record through application of technical means on the territory of that Party, and 

b. compel a service provider, within its technical ability, to:

i. collect or record through application of technical means on the territory of that Party, or

ii. co-operate and assist the competent authorities in the collection or recording of,

content data, in real-time, of specified communications in its territory 27 transmitted by means of a computer system.

2. Where required by the established principles of its domestic legal system, a Party may adopt other measures as may be necessary to
ensure the real-time collection and recording of content data through technical means, provided that such measures ensure the availability
of such data for the purpose of criminal investigations and procedings.

3. The powers and procedures referred to in this article shall be subject to the conditions and safeguards provided for under the
domestic law of the Party concerned.


The important sections related to access to encrypted data and interception of communications from the draft number 22 (October 2000) are re-produced here:

Article 15 - Production Order

Each Party shall take such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to empower its competent authorities to order, for the purpose of criminal investigations or proceedings:

a person in its territory to submit specified computer data under this person's control, which is stored in a computer system or a computer-data storage medium;

a service provider offering its services in its territory to submit subscriber information under that service provider's possession or control;

[Option 1: a person in its territory to process specified computer data under this person's control in order to yield the information necessary for that purpose and submit it to the competent authorities] [Option 2: a person in its territory to produce, within that person's technical ability, specified information by processing data under that person's possession or control].

Article 18 - Interception of electronic communications

Each Party shall take such legislative and other measures as may be necessary, for the purpose of criminal investigations or proceedings related to serious offences [to be defined by domestic law] to empower its competent authorities to:

(a) collect or record through application of technical means on the territory of that Party, and

compel a service provider to:

(i) collect or record through application of technical means on the territory of that Party, or

(ii) co-operate and assist the competent authorities in the collection or recording of,

content data of specified communications in its territory transmitted by means of a computer system.

Article 18 bis - Real-time collection of traffic data

Each Party shall take such legislative and other measures as may be necessary, for the purpose of criminal investigations or proceedings, to empower its competent authorities to:

(a) collect or record through application of technical means on the territory of that Party and

(b) compel a service provider to:

(i) collect or record through application of technical means on the territory of that Party, or

(ii) co-operate and assist the competent authorities in the collection or recording of,

traffic data in real-time, associated with specified communications on its territory transmitted by means of a computer system.

Article 18 ter - Obligation of confidentiality

Each Party shall take such legislative and other measures as may be necessary to oblige a service provider to keep confidential the fact of and any information about the execution of any power provided for under Articles 18 and 18 bis.

Article 18 quater - General Provisions Relating to Domestic Procedural Law Measures

1. [Each Party shall apply the measures described in articles 14 through 17, and 18 bis to:

(a) the offences established in accordance with articles 2-11 of this Convention;

(b) other criminal offences committed by means of a computer system;

(c) evidence in electronic form of any criminal offence.]

2. [Each Party may, at the time of signature, or when depositing its instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, by declaration addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, declare that it reserves its right to apply the measure referred to in Article 18 bis only to offences or categories of offences specified in such declaration.]

3. For the purposes of Article 18, the range of serious offenses covered shall be determined by the domestic law of the Party concerned.

4. The powers and procedures referred to in articles 14 through 18 bis shall be subject to the conditions and safeguards provided for under the domestic law of the Party concerned.

Article 28 - Mutual assistance regarding the interception of data

The Parties shall provide mutual assistance to each other with respect to the interception of the content of specified communications transmitted by means of a computer system [to the extent permitted by their applicable treaties and domestic laws].

Article 28 bis - Mutual assistance regarding the real-time collection of traffic data

The Parties shall provide mutual assistance to each other with respect to the real-time collection of traffic data concerning specified communications transmitted by means of a computer system. Subject to subparagraph 3, assistance shall be governed by the conditions and procedures provided for under domestic law.

Each Party shall provide such assistance at least with respect to [the offences established in accordance with this convention and such other] [the offences established in accordance with articles 2 through 5 and 9 of this convention and such other] criminal offences for which real-time collection would be available in a similar national case.

Parties that limit the types of offences for which the measure is available shall consider expanding their ability to provide such assistance to other criminal offences related to computer systems and data.