Still Flawed and Lacking Safeguards, UN Cybercrime Treaty Goes Before the UN General Assembly, then States for Adoption

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Most UN Member States, including the U.S., are expected to support adoption of the flawed UN Cybercrime Treaty when it’s scheduled to go before the UN General Assembly this week for a vote, despite warnings that it poses dangerous risks to human rights.

EFF and its civil society partners–along with cybersecurity and internet companies, press organizations, the International Chamber of Congress, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and others–for years have raised red flags that the treaty authorizes open-ended evidence gathering powers for crimes with little nexus to core cybercrimes, and has minimal safeguards and limitations.

 The final draft, unanimously approved in August by over 100 countries that had participated in negotiations, will permit intrusive surveillance practices in the name of engendering cross-border cooperation.

The treaty that will go before the UN General Assembly contains many troubling provisions and omissions that don’t comport with international human rights standards and leave the implementation of human rights safeguards to the discretion of Member States. Many of these Member States have poor track records on human rights and national laws that don’t protect privacy while criminalizing free speech and  gender expression.

Thanks to the work of a coalition of civil society groups that included EFF, the U.S. now seems to recognize this potential danger. In a statement by the U.S. Deputy Representative to the Economic and Social Council, the U.S. said it “shares the legitimate concerns”

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