- 72 countries sign UN cybercrime treaty to unify global legal and investigative efforts
- The treaty calls for criminalization, evidence sharing and extradition, with safeguards for rights and privacy.
- Critics warn that it enables surveillance and lacks strong protections for human rights and due process.
Australia and Spain are among 72 countries that have signed the new United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, the first global treaty designed to combat cybercrime through unified international rules and cooperation.
The treaty, adopted by the UN General Assembly in July 2024, establishes legal frameworks to investigate and prosecute crimes such as ransomware, online fraud and child exploitation.
The key argument here is that there are legal and cooperation gaps between countries, as cyber attacks often occur in one country, victims reside in another, and electronic evidence in yet another. The treaty aims to close these gaps by defining common crimes, establishing procedures for the collection of digital evidence and cross-border data sharing, requiring each member state to classify basic cybercrimes in their national law, creating mechanisms for international cooperation – including extradition – and “balancing law enforcement” with safeguards for privacy, free expression and due process. process.
Human rights at risk
However, it is the latter, along with evidence gathering and extradition, that caused quite a few countries and organizations to oppose it.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch and Privacy International, as well as technology giant Cisco, spoke out against the treaty, arguing that it forces countries to establish “extensive electronic surveillance” without adequately protecting basic human rights.
So far, 72 countries have signed the convention and, although there is no complete list of signatories, the list of statements in support of the document includes Spain and Australia, with other supporters including the League of Arab States, Interpol, Iran, Peru, Luxembourg, China, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Philippines, Brazil, Chile, Egypt. Thailand and Czechia.
Signing the Agreement is only the first step. Now, different countries need to pass the relevant legislation in order to enforce it.
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