India Expects Landmark Global Cybercrime Pact Will Be Strong Force To Fight Threat

(MENAFN- IANS) United Nations, Aug 11 (IANS) India expects that the landmark international treaty to fight cybercrime will be a very strong force to fight the threat through international cooperation, according to its delegate to the negotiations for the landmark pact.

The 193 members of the world organisation reached a consensus for a comprehensive treaty to fight cybercrimes, ranging from terrorism and hacking to financial fraud and child porn after more than two years of negotiations.

"We anticipate that this treaty will establish a very strong foundation for international cooperation, one that allows us to effectively combat cyber threats while respecting the sovereignty of each nation," Arvinder Singh, India's representative at the negotiations has said.

Speaking at the concluding session of the negotiating committee on Friday, he said, "This will act as a strong deterrent against the cyber criminals who exploit the boundaries of nations while committing cyber crimes."

The negotiators for the landmark treaty reached their agreement on Thursday and the draft will go before the General Assembly where its passage is assured.

It will come into force when 40 countries have signed it.

"The finalisation of this Convention is a landmark step as the first multilateral anti-crime treaty in over 20 years and the first UN Convention against Cybercrime at a time when threats in cyberspace are growing rapidly," said Ghada Waly, the executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), which served as the secretariat for the negotiations.

The negotiating committee was set up under a 2019 General Assembly resolution and it worked through more than two years of discussions to arrive at the consensus, overcoming national differences and criticism from trade organisations and human rights groups.

Singh said India is "optimistic that (with) the continued cooperation and commitment from all participating countries, we can forge an agreement that will not only serve our individual interest, but also contribute to the global good".

"We assure all of you that we will respond promptly to your request" for cooperation, he added.

Russia first proposed such a treaty but it later backtracked and the US took a leading role in moving it forward, installing what a senior official said were human rights guardrails.

Both countries, however, agreed on the draft, although the US official said the US has not decided to sign it.

The 40-page treaty draft seeks to create uniform standards for determining cybercrimes and to require countries to enact legislation against them, while setting up avenues to fight them together

It will require countries to cooperate in prosecuting cybercriminals committing offences across borders and sharing electronic traffic information and other data.

It will also arrange for the return of money taken by cyber criminals from people in other countries.

The convention draft, which mentions terrorism as an area of concern, takes on“transnational organised crime, such as trafficking in persons, the smuggling of migrants, the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts, components and ammunition, drug trafficking and trafficking in cultural property”.

The pact includes action against child porn, exploitation of children and revenge porn -- the transmission of intimate images without permission.

Hacking, interfering with transmissions, cutting access to the internet, planting malware, and stealing data are other crimes that come under the broad sweep of the treaty draft.

Countries, under the pact, can request other governments or internet service providers for data or evidence to investigate crimes under their laws.

The treaty is facing opposition from some groups that assert that it will enable invasion of privacy and promote surveillance of individuals or organisations.

Global Network Initiative, an organisation representing several major tech corporations including Google, Zoom, Microsoft, and Meta, complained that the convention "authorises pervasive cross-border surveillance without requiring the types of safeguards" necessary "under international human rights law and rights respecting practices within data protection frameworks".

Human Rights Watch and Electronic Frontier Foundation asserted that the pact“would expand government surveillance and facilitate cross-border human rights abuses”.

(Arul Louis can be contacted at ... and followed at @arulouis)

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