On 2 March, the Let’sTalkCyber Initiative held a hybrid event titled: “What future for international cybercrime cooperation?”, hosted by Chatham House and EU Cyber Direct. The event was organised in the margins of the new UN Ad-Hoc Committee process to negotiate an international convention on cybercrime to discuss the process laying ahead, as well as to identify priorities and challenges. The event welcomed H. E. Faouzia Boumaiza Mebarki, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations in New York and Chair of the UN Ad-Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes (Cybercrime Treaty). Ambassador Mebarki re-assured participants that in her role as chair of the Cybercrime Treaty negotiations, she would work with determination to reach consensus between States and stressed her willingness to involve as many members of the multistakeholder community as possible: “it is essential to listen and involve other stakeholders… like the private sector, non-governmental organisations without ECOSOC status, the already approved list of third parties and beyond.” The event began with introductory remarks by Patryk Pawlak, Brussels Executive Officer for the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS), Silvio Gonzato, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York, and Ambassador Boumaiza Mebarki, who provided context for the session and opened the floor to a panel discussion.
Moderator Peter Micek, General Counsel and UN Policy Manager at Access Now, together with panel speakers Laurent Muschel, Director of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs, and Lani Cosette, Senior Director & Chief of Staff for Microsoft’s UN Affairs Office, addressed the importance of involving the multistakeholder community in the cybercrime negotiations and identified several areas in which non-governmental stakeholders could provide input in the discussions. Joyce Hakmeh, Senior Research Fellow, International Security Programme at Chatham House, closed the panel stressing the importance of these negotiations in formalizing rules for addressing cybercrime, pointing out the human rights aspect in this treaty. The event took place at the EU Delegation to the United Nations in New York and saw the participation of 30 people in the room as well as more than 230 online attendees. A recording of the event is available online in English, French and Spanish at letstalkcyber.org.