Vienna (Austria) - 5 December 2022. Today in the margins of the CCPCJ Thematic Discussions on the Kyoto Declaration, the UNODC Civil Society Unit and the Alliance of NGOs on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice facilitated the “Civil Society Briefing and Needs Assessment on the Ad Hoc Committee on ”Cybercrime” in a hybrid format in Vienna. The overall objective of this event was to engage with civil society organizations, private sector and academia, on the preparation to the fourth session of the Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes taking place from 9-20 January 2023 in Vienna.
Anders Frantzen from the UNODC Civil Society Unit together with Anna Alvazzi del Frate from the NGO Alliance on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice opened and moderated the meeting that highlighted the crucial role of civil society organisations, private sector, and academia in the UN negotiations on the convention on cybercrime.
Ian Tennant from GI-TOC explained how non-governmental stakeholders can benefit from the opportunities of building civil society and private sector engagement more broadly in the Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime.
Nemanja Malisevic from Microsoft stressed that this Ad Hoc Committee is the most open and transparent UN process involving the private sector, and that it has opportunities for all non-governmental stakeholders to contribute and come up with ideas. Microsoft hopes that the new convention on cybercrime will regulate the whole of the industry in a fair way.
According to Nicolas Wieczorek from Binance, a crypto-currency exchange platform, public private partnerships are a solution for better processes and regulations. In this regard, cooperation between law enforcement agencies and private sector companies can lead to prevention and awareness.
Meanwhile, Pavlina Pavlova from Cyber Peace Institute stressed that cybercrime has no borders and more transparency in cyberspace is needed, referring to a multi-stakeholder manifesto they had issued involving over 50 civil society members.
During the briefing, the previous Ad Hoc Committee meetings and the process so far were discussed. Most importantly, the meeting paved the way for future discussions to enhance the process by means of a broader and more inclusive participation of non-governmental stakeholders.
Participants jointly discussed areas of possible further coordination and identified the needs of civil society organizations, private sector and academia. It was concluded that working together through partnerships is pivotal to continue to meaningfully engage with Member States on the AHC “cybercrime” negotiations going forward.
