UN Cybercrime Convention Negotiations Enter Final Phase With Troubling Surveillance Powers Still on the Table

This is Part II of EFF’s analysis of the zero draft of the UN Cybercrime Convention. Part I is here

As one of the last negotiating sessions to finalize the UN Cybercrime Convention approaches, it’s important to remember that the outcome and implications of the international talks go well beyond the UN meeting rooms in Vienna and New York. Representatives from over 140 countries around the globe with widely divergent law enforcement practices, including Iran, Russia,  Saudi Arabia, China, Brazil, Chile, Switzerland, New Zealand, Kenya, Germany, Canada, the U.S., Peru, and Uruguay, have met over the last year to push their positions on what the draft convention should say about across border police powers, access to private data, judicial oversight of prosecutorial practices, and other thorny issues.

As we noted in Part I of this post about the zero draft of the draft convention now on the table, the final text will result in the rewriting of criminal and surveillance laws around the world, as Member States work into their legal frameworks the agreed upon requirements, authorizations, and protections. Millions of people, including those often in the crosshairs of governments for defending human rights and advocating for free expression, will be affected. That’s why we and our international allies have been fighting for users to ensure the draft convention includes robust human rights protections.

Going into the sixth negotiating session, which begins August 21 in New York, the outcome of the talks remains uncertain. A variety of issues are still unresolved, and the finalization of the intricate text faces approaching deadlines. The foundational principle of the negotiations—“nothing is agreed until everything is agreed upon”—underscores the complexity and delicate nature of these discuss

[…]
Content was cut in order to protect the source.Please visit the source for the rest of the article.

This article has been indexed from Deeplinks

Read the original article: