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UN Cybercrime Treaty must protect Human Rights
The United Nations have initiated a process to negotiate an international treaty on cybercrime (more specifically, a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes). An open-ended, ad hoc intergovernmental committee of experts (Ad Hoc Committee) was established to conduct the negotiations which are expected to continue until at least the end of 2023. The Ad Hoc Committee shall convene at least six sessions, of 10 days each, to commence in January 2022, as well as a concluding session in New York, and conclude its work in order to provide a draft convention to the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session (i.e. in 2024).
PI believes that cybercrime can pose a threat to the enjoyment of human rights. At the same time, we are concerned that cybercrime laws, policies and practices are currently being used to undermine human rights. This is why we are actively participating in the UN negotiations to ensure that any proposed cybercrime treaty includes human rights safeguards applicable to both its substantive and procedural provisions.