Conference - The Failure of the United Nations to adopt a convention against cybercriminality : bad news or good news ?

New York, Friday 9 February: After two years of intense negotiations at the United Nations, the final session that was to have concluded with the adoption of a universal convention against cybercrime has ended in failure. "We now consider that we have not yet managed to reach a consensus. I believe that not all States are convinced to adopt the convention at this stage", declared the Chair of the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee in charge of the negotiations.

This failure is not surprising. From the outset, this project, initiated by Russia and supported by China, gave rise to numerous reservations on the part of various countries (notably in the West), fearing that this convention could be used by non-democratic countries to undermine fundamental human rights, notably the rights to freedom of expression, privacy and the protection of personal data. On the eve of the final session, many points of disagreement remained, notably concerning the identification of certain cyber crimes and international cooperation mechanisms.

However, the negotiations are not over yet. Considering that this convention was urgently needed, the Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee proposed to the States to engage in a new session of negotiations, the date of which remains to be determined.

The purpose of this communication is to present the main points of the negotiations.