130 Organizations and Academics Call for Human Rights Safeguards in UN Cybercrime Treaty
On 22 December 2021, the Electronic Frontier Fighters and Human Rights Watch, as well as 130 organizations and academics, signed a letter addressed to Ambassador H.E. Faouzia Boumaiza Mebarki, Chair of the Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communication Technologies for Criminal Purposes. The signatory organisations called on UN Member States to ensure human rights protections are embedded in the Committee’s final product and recommended that cross-border investigative powers include strong human rights safeguards. The letter further called on the Member States to ensure that global civil society be provided opportunities to participate robustly in the development and drafting of any potential convention.