Organization of American States

The Organization of American States (OAS) is a regional intergovernmental organisation established to foster collaboration and promote development among its 35 member states. 

Activities undertaken by the organisation are aimed at: reducing poverty, achieving economic development, contributing to strengthening democracy, governance and security, and defending the rights of the citizens of the region.

Cybercrime and cybersecurity are two of the topics covered by OAS in its activities. The organisation supports its member states in their fight against cybercrime, and in developing their cybersecurity agendas, though providing  technical assistance and training, policy roundtables, crisis management exercises, and the exchange of best practices related to information and communication technologies. It also encourages and supports the creation of Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRTs) in each country. The Cybersecurity Programme of the organisation is dedicated to strengthening the cybersecurity capabilities of member states, through actions focused on: national cybersecurity strategy development, cybersecurity training, CSIRT development, crisis management exercises, awareness raising, cybersecurity technical assistance missions, and access to cybersecurity expertise.  An Inter-American Cooperation Portal on Cyber-Crime has also been set up by OAS with the aim to facilitate information exchange and cooperation among member states in the area of investigating and prosecuting cybecrime. In addition, the organisation cooperates with a wide range of national and regional entities from the public and private sectors on both policy and technical issues.

The OAS has been a supporter of the South School on Internet Governance, an initiative aimed at building the capacity of stakeholders in the region to actively contribute to national, regional and global Internet governance processes.