Applying the right lessons from the negotiation and implementation of the UNTOC and the UNCAC to the implementation of the newly agreed UN ‘cybercrime’ treaty

After two years of intense negotiations in a highly political process mandated to elaborate a comprehensive ‘International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communication Technologies', member states of the United Nations, in August 2024, agreed on a new United Nations Convention against Cybercrime [UNODC AHC website. 2024a. https://www.unodc.org/documents/Cybercrime/AdHocCommittee/Comments/RF_28_July_2021_-_E.pdf; UNODC AHC website. 2024b. https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/v24/055/06/pdf/v2405506.pdf]. The Ad Hoc Committee (AHC) mandated to carry out the negotiation process drew extensively from United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), specifically in its approaches to criminalisation, international cooperation and law enforcement/procedural measures. Therefore, questions are raised as to what lessons from UNTOC and UNCAC implementation should be learned as member states begin the process of ratification and subsequently implementation, and as the AHC finalises its work in preparing the convention's conference of parties and implementation mechanisms – on review, accountability, transparency and multistakeholder approaches. The paper will explore the different perspectives from the history of UNTOC's negotiation and implementation that need to be considered as the convention is sent for formal adoption. First, it undertakes a focused literature review on the UNTOC and UNCAC and its travaux preparatoires of such provisions. The paper explains the background of the relevant negotiation decisions and the effects that it had on the convention’s scope and implementation. It explores the benefits and shortcomings of the related approaches taken in the cybercrime treaty. The paper concludes with lessons learned from the implementation of UNTOC and UNCAC.