CIVICUS discusses the recently approved United Nations (UN) Cybercrime Convention with Deborah Brown, deputy director of the Technology, Rights and Investigations division of Human Rights Watch, who took part in the negotiations.
After three years of negotiations, on 8 August UN member states agreed by consensus a draft Convention on Cybercrime, which now goes to the UN General Assembly for adoption. Civil society and technology companies warn that the convention’s broad scope and lack of human rights safeguards could expand surveillance, threaten privacy, restrict freedom of expression and enable government repression. Many in civil society see the convention as the result of concerted Russian efforts to shift global online norms in a more authoritarian direction, while the convention’s supporters believe it will harmonise global efforts and align the cybercrime laws and investigatory police powers of states.
