The committee established by the UN General Assembly to negotiate a new UN cybercrime convention agreed in draft this week, has received criticism after three years of work.
The General Assembly is expected to adopt the convention later this year as the first global legally binding instrument on cybercrime.
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Over a five-year cycle involving Member States, academic institutions, civil society and the private sector, the UN cyber convention includes tools to enhance international cooperation, support law enforcement efforts, technical assistance, and capacity-building relating to cybercrime.
Multinational technology conglomerate Cisco released a statement saying that the convention falls short of what is needed and has urged UN Member States to better align with the authorities and protections already in the Budapest Convention.
Eric Wenger, Senior Director for technology policy at Cisco said: “Criminal groups are leveraging advanced technology to operate across borders, necessitating that law enforcement agencies have the capabilities to prevent, investigate, and prosecute these crimes while also protecting human rights.
“The UN Convention does not sufficiently protect basic human rights and poses risks to the rule of law. Rather than specifically focusing on hacking and cybercrimes, it broadly aims at the misuse of computer networks to disseminate objectionable information. This represents a misalignment with the values of free speech.”
UNODC served as the substantive secretariat for the negotiations and will provide technical assistance to Member States to safeguard digital spaces once adopted by the general assembly.
Technology has created opportunities for a greater scale, speed, and scope of crimes, according to the convention, from terrorism to drug trafficking, people smuggling and illegal firearms.
The Budapest Convention is the world’s first international treaty designed to focus on the growing threat of cybercrime, and came into force in 2004 with 68 states ratifying the convention since 2023.
