From 29th July to 8th August, United Nations (UN) member states will meet in New York for the concluding reconvened negotiations on the world’s first global cybercrime treaty. If adopted it will have far-reaching implications for how governments cooperate to combat the rapidly escalating challenge of cybercrime. The upcoming session will be the final chance for member states to strike a balance between addressing cybercrime and protecting human rights.
While the latest draft text of the treaty, published on May 23rd, is a substantial improvement from the first draft of the Convention, it continues to include elements that have significant potential to negatively impact tech companies and citizens worldwide. These issues must be addressed before the treaty is fit for purpose.
The issues include a worrying lack of safeguards for security researchers and tech workers, concerning passages on child sexual abuse material, a vital need for more human rights safeguards (as proposed by the governments of Canada, New Zealand, and the UK), and dangerous provisions that could harm corporate IT systems and undermine national security.
Today, the Cybersecurity Tech Accord is publishing our latest comprehensive statement detailing these fatal issues and omissions and providing suggested fixes. We hope this input will assist states in developing a final Convention that will be positioned to actually help address the growing menace of cybercrime. This document supplements our submission from January 2024, ahead of the previous round of negotiations – which had been scheduled to be the final round before member states were unable to reach a final consensus.
Our new Statement below outlines the tech industry’s key concerns with the latest draft and is a call to action for Member States. Our efforts to improve the final text of the Convention are joined by a coalition of partner organizations including but not limited to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, which have also called on UN Member States to pay close attention to safeguards and human rights. Industry and civil society have been aligned in our advocacy throughout this process and, earlier this year, we jointly called on the Chair of the negotiations to take action on the convention’s worrying lack of human rights provisions.
For the past two years, the Cybersecurity Tech Accord has represented more than 150 signatories, as well as the wider cybersecurity and technology industry, in these negotiations. We have persistently called for governments to develop a treaty that will enable effective cooperation on cybercrime without undermining legitimate online activities or human rights. Despite the progress made, as reflected in the latest draft of the Convention, much remains unresolved, and time is running out to achieve an acceptable outcome for the technology community and human rights defenders.
For further information on how to get involved, please contact: info@cybertechaccord.org. For additional information, you can listen in on the panel on UN cybercrime treaty negotiations that took place during the Cybersecurity Tech Accord’s sixth anniversary earlier this year by clicking play below.
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