United Nations members reached a consensus on a treaty aimed at addressing cybercrime.
This development marked the organization’s first foray into this area despite significant pushback from human rights advocates who caution against potential surveillance risks.
After three years of deliberation and a final two-week negotiation in New York Thursday, the United Nations Convention Against Cybercrime was unanimously approved and will now be presented to the General Assembly for formal ratification.
“I consider the documents … adopted. Thank you very much, bravo to all!” announced Algerian diplomat Faouzia Boumaiza Mebarki, who chaired the treaty’s drafting committee, to applause from the assembly.
The committee’s formation followed a 2017 initiative by Russia, despite resistance from the United States and Europe.
The treaty, which will come into force once ratified by 40 member nations, aims to enhance the global fight against cybercrime, particularly in areas such as child sexual abuse imagery and money laundering.
South Africa’s delegate praised the treaty as a “landmark convention,” emphasizing that the “provisions of technical assistance and capacity building offer much needed support to countries with less developed cyber infrastructures.”
However, critics, including a coalition of human rights groups and major technology companies, argue that the treaty’s broad scope could turn it into a global “surveillance” tool, potentially leading to repression.
One contentious aspect of the treaty allows a state, while investigating crimes punishable by at least four years of imprisonment under its domestic law, to request electronic evidence from authorities in another country, as well as data from internet service providers.
Deborah Brown of Human Rights Watch warned AFP that the treaty could create an “unprecedented multilateral tool for surveillance” and described it as “a disaster for human rights and a dark moment for the UN.”
She added, “This treaty is effectively a legal instrument of repression. It can be used to crack down on journalists, activists, LGBT people, free thinkers, and others across borders.”
Nick Ashton-Hart, leading the Cybersecurity Tech Accord’s delegation to the talks and representing over 100 tech companies, including Microsoft and Meta, expressed disappointment.
He remarked that the committee “adopted a convention without addressing many of the major flaws identified by civil society, the private sector, or even the U.N.’s own human rights body.”
Ashton-Hart further warned, “Wherever it is implemented the Convention will be harmful to the digital environment generally and human rights in particular,” urging nations not to endorse or implement it.
On the other hand, some countries argue that the treaty incorporates too many human rights protections.
Russia, a long-time supporter of the process, recently criticized the treaty for being “oversaturated with human rights safeguards” and accused other nations of advancing “narrow self-serving goals under the banner of democratic values.”
During Thursday’s proceedings, Iran sought to remove several clauses it deemed to have “inherent flaws.” One of these clauses asserted that “nothing in this Convention shall be interpreted as permitting suppression of human rights or fundamental freedoms,” including “freedoms of expression, conscience, opinion, religion or belief.”
The proposal to delete the clause was rejected, with 102 votes against, 23 in favour, including Russia, India, Sudan, Venezuela, Syria, North Korea, and Libya, and 26 abstentions.
Despite these objections, neither Iran nor any other country chose to block the treaty’s approval by consensus.
