Session
Organizer 1: Monica Ruiz, Microsoft
Organizer 2: Nemanja Malisevic, Microsoft
Speaker 1: Nick Ashton-Hart, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Briony Daley Whitworth, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Kaja Ciglic, Private Sector, Eastern European Group
Monica Ruiz, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Nemanja Malisevic, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Nemanja Malisevic, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Round Table - Circle - 60 Min
• Between 2022 and 2023, UN member states will negotiate a new convention on cybercrime, as mandated by UN General Assembly resolution 74/247. The future convention will determine the parameters of criminal acts in cyberspace, international cooperation to counter cybercrime and more. Against that background, and with the goal of identifying essential elements that should be included to protect human rights online from government overreach, what should be incorporated in a UN convention on cybercrime? What crimes does the convention need to address and what should it avoid criminalizing?
• Cybercrime knows no borders and is increasingly posing serious threats to communities and sectors around the world. As such, pursuing a systematic multistakeholder approach through meaningful inclusion and consideration of the equities of civil society, industry, academics, technical experts and scientific and research institutions is essential to address the challenge. How has cybercrime legislation and regional cooperation efforts been used effectively in the past and how can the multistakeholder community engage in addressing the challenges posed by cybercrime?
• The convention will only be effective as an instrument of criminal justice cooperation if it is universally adopted and if the offences included in the convention are commonly understood and recognized by all. This means that provisions on criminalization should be limited in scope and definitions precise. With that in mind, what specific rights may be threatened by a treaty with a broad scope and unclear definitions and how can we prevent such an outcome?
• A new convention could provide an opportunity for greater collaboration between governments, the private sector and civil society. It could also be a chance to recognize the need to advance both public safety interests and fundamental privacy rights while finding solutions to conflicts of laws, jurisdictional and sovereignty issues. If a treaty is reached, what is the right balance between privacy/human rights and enabling cooperation across borders and sectors? What will be the biggest challenges to effective implementation? And what kind of capacity building support will be needed in different contexts?
Connection with previous Messages:
16. Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
Targets: Cybercriminals are skilled and relentless. Experience shows they have been able to continuously evolve and increase their sophistication, using methods that make them harder to spot, threatening even the well-prepared targets. They do not respect international borders and tend to hide in jurisdictions that do not have the legal frameworks that would allow for their prosecution, that lack the capability to track them down or that simply have no interest in the cross-border cooperation needed to contain this global threat. Aligned with the SDG target of Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, this workshop seeks to explore opportunities and pitfalls in the ongoing cybercrime treaty negotiations toward identifying ways to integrate peace and justice in the process. In parallel, it seeks to establish a systematic multistakeholder approach centered on capacitating institutions that protect targets and victims of cybercrime.
Description:
As deliberations on a potential new cybercrime treaty continue at the United Nations (UN), there are well-founded concerns that a resulting agreement could undermine fundamental freedoms online and lack narrowly tailored and defined purpose and reach of government/ law enforcement access to data. However, a new convention could provide an opportunity for greater collaboration between governments and the private sector in matters related to lawful data access— especially the case for cloud service providers. In line with this year’s IGF theme on “Connecting All People and Safeguarding Human Rights”, this workshop will focus on identifying what principles and guardrails should exist for the Ad Hoc Committee negotiations to ensure that any resulting agreement is rights respecting and facilitates lawful access. While cybercrime certainly presents a pressing global challenge, it is unclear what the scope of a new treaty would be and how it would be complementary with existing instruments. This is particularly important, given the need to have harmonized regulation versus a split between the new UN convention and existing legislation, such as the Budapest Convention. There is also a risk that authoritarian governments may use the treaty to violate privacy of individuals and crack down on dissent and freedom of expression online in order to silence opposition. Grounded in the importance of diversity and the fact that States still have divergent positions, this workshop will bring together expert communities from industry, government and civil society to discuss potential opportunities and pitfalls for this treaty a year after negotiation commenced at the UN.
The cyber threat landscape is changing, as a rise in the frequency, sophistication and intensity of attacks threaten our collective security. Specifically, cybercrime does not respect international borders and poses new risks to human security, dignity and equity, which no single actor can adequately counter on their own. This workshop aims to encourage multistakeholder engagement on the issue of cybercrime, emphasizing the importance of multistakeholder input that can be leveraged in the next round of negotiations. The plan being to explore global challenges in the malicious use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and identify ways to protect and empower users. It will also build momentum and allow for future community-driven initiatives leading up to a possible new treaty at the UN.
Hybrid Format: - How will you facilitate interaction between onsite and online speakers and attendees?
Per the IGF’s guidance, we will be sure to have both onsite and online moderators that will serve as facilitators for participation at the event. Moreover, we look forward to working with the IGF Secretariat (using the Official Online Participation Platform) and the Host Country to leverage the technical tools that will be available to host a successful hybrid discussion.
- How will you design the session to ensure the best possible experience for online and onsite participants?
This workshop session will be designed as an engaging panel discussion with experts that represent different sectors and regions. To ensure the best possible experience for online and onsite participants, it will begin with insights from the speakers and then open up to questions from attendees onsite and online. To add to the experience, we will be sure to share information about this workshop with our networks, and also ask speakers to promote it, to gather as much diverse participation from across sectors and relevant communities.
- Please note any complementary online tools/platforms you plan to use to increase participation and interaction during the session.
To increase participation and interaction during the session, we will leverage the tools available and use the online chat function/ “Raise Hand” feature, so everyone can see audience questions and can input insights/ inquiries throughout.
Usage of IGF Official Tool.