(MENAFN- Gulf Times) To deal with criminals engaged in new forms of crimes, the international community must put up legal barriers, including new global treaties, to end impunity, prosecute perpetrators and stop cybercrime and illicit financing, the UN Crime Congress has urged.
At a plenary session yesterday at the 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, speakers said that botnets, online spies and terrorists recruiting foreign fighters were among a league of new threats that required equally unique and innovative responses.
Some suggested opening channels for information sharing and mutual assistance, while others debated whether or not a new cybercrime convention should be considered. Throughout the day-long debate, delegates agreed that the world had to catch up with the criminals to stop their illicit activities.
"We have to be smarter than them to fight their networks," Morocco's representative said, describing an evolving cyberspace landscape where criminals were delving into a range of illicit activities, from illegal mining to trafficking in endangered flora and fauna.
Other speakers agreed that new efforts were needed to stamp out the havoc wreaked by computer viruses and the widespread use of the Internet for criminal offences, such as child pornography, identity theft and recruitment by terrorist groups.
While agreeing that a co-operative approach was required to fight cyber crime and transnational crime, a number of speakers were divided on whether existing or new tools would best guide that task.
New crimes required new conventions, Egypt's delegate said, adding that a new instrument should also guide states in addressing trafficking in cultural property. In addition, a new cyber crime convention should effectively respond to such offences and provide clear guidance on extradition and repatriation.
South Africa's representative, speaking for the African Group, said there was an urgent need for a legally binding cyber crime instrument, with Iraq's speaker saying that such a tool would help to contain crimes whereby "dirty" money could be transferred across the world within seconds.
Brazil's delegate called for a multilateral legal framework to better assist countries in apprehending and prosecuting perpetrators.
On existing treaties, some speakers said that, even though the Council of Europe's Convention on Cyber crime, known as the Budapest Convention, was open to non-member states, it fell short in certain areas. The representative of the Russian Federation said that the instrument provided for the respect of human rights; however, it did not recognise the sovereign rights of all states to lead investigations.
A number of speakers emphasised that instead of wasting precious time on shaping a new "tool", the international community should work with what it already had in its kit. The representative of the United States said drafting a new cyber crime instrument was "counterproductive" and delegates of the European Union and the Council of Europe said the Budapest Convention was the correct and appropriate multilateral tool.
Some speakers said that addressing emerging threats, including cyber crime and trafficking wildlife, could be accomplished through the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime. In that regard, Ecuador called for a review mechanism of that instrument's implementation.
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