IPI today joined 20 digital rights and press freedom groups to urge the European Union to address critical flaws in the latest draft of the UN cybercrime convention, ahead of the final negotiations of the treaty that begin at the end of this month in New York. 

IPI has consistently called for sweeping revisions to the draft treaty, including narrowing the scope of the convention to core “cyber-dependent” crimes and significantly bolstering human rights safeguards throughout. In the absence of such reforms, the treaty risks becoming a powerful global surveillance tool that will be abused by governments around the world to target and punish journalists, civil society, and critics both at home and abroad.

The latest draft text has failed to incorporate the robust and detailed recommendations and input provided by civil society and industry experts across seven previous rounds of negotiations. Unless significant revisions to the treaty text are made, we urge the delegations of EU member states and the EU Commission to reject the draft Convention and not advance it to the UN General Assembly for adoption.

Read joint advocacy statement in full.