UN Cybercrime Draft Treaty Timeline

October 2017 The Russian Federation presents a letter to the UN General Assembly containing a draft of the United Nations Convention on Cooperation in Combating Cybercrime, intended for circulation to Member States. 

November 2019 A resolution, sponsored by Russia—along with Belarus, Cambodia, China, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria, and Venezuela—to set up an international convention to combat cybercrime passes in the UN General Assembly. The resolution was opposed by the US, the EU, and other nations. Human rights organizations, including the Association for Progressive Communications and EFF, urged the General Assembly to vote against the resolution, citing concerns that it “could undermine the use of the internet to exercise human rights and facilitate social and economic development.” 

December 2019 The UN General Assembly adopts a resolution to create an Ad Hoc Committee (AHC) to draft a UN Convention “on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes.” Participation in the AHC is open to all Member States of the world, as well as non-member state observers (like the EU and the Council of Europe), civil society, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to varying degrees. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), through the Organized Crime and Illicit Trafficking Branch, Division for Treaty Affairs, serves as Secretariat for the Ad Hoc Committee. However, the timing of this effort was controversial, as another UN General Assembly Resolution had raised concerns that cybercrime laws “are in some instances misused to target human rights defenders or have hindered their work and endangered their safety in a manner contrary to international law.”

August 2020 The AHC postpones its first organizational meeting in New York to 2021 because of COVID-19. January 2021 Human Rights Watch raises alarms that UN member states are beginning the process for a cybercrime treaty whose “champions are some of the world’s most repressive governments…the initiative raises serious human rights concerns."  May 2021 The AHC convenes the inaugural organizational session, with representatives from over 160 countries agreeing on an outline and modalities for negotiations. The AHC calls for at least six negotiating sessions lasting 10 days each starting in 2022, to be held in New York and Vienna. The General Assembly passes  the proposal amid complaints by the UK and other countries that Member States were not consulted about the final text and the drafting process lacked inclusivity. 

Many speakers had similar objections, with several diverging over the AHC’s decision-making structure. Setting the terms for negotiations, Brazil introduced an amendment requiring the committee to gain approval of a two-thirds majority of representatives, rather than a simple majority favored by Russia, “before which the Chair shall inform the Committee that every effort to reach agreement by consensus has been exhausted.” The amendment was approved 88 to 42, with 32 abstentions. In a separate iconic decision seeking greater transparency and inclusion, Member States approved a list of representatives to participate in the work of the AHC from relevant academic institutions, private sector, and NGOs inc