As part of a collaboration between the UK government and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (henceforth ‘GI-TOC’) to promote civil society engagement in the UN negotiations around a cybercrime treaty, the GI-TOC organized a meeting to consult key experts and industry stakeholders.

The purpose was to provide inputs for the UK government as it develops its submissions and negotiating positions for the Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes (henceforth the ‘Ad Hoc Committee’).

The event was designed to allow the UK government to hear the perspectives and positions of industry stakeholders and members of the GI-TOC Network of Experts on key elements of the proposed legal instrument, to be later discussed in official negotiation sessions at the UN.

The issues addressed in this roundtable aligned with the topics states are due to address in the Ad Hoc Committee’s second session: criminalization, the general provisions, and the provisions on procedural measures and law enforcement. Issues related to prevention of cybercrimes were also covered. The UK government opened the meeting by highlighting their interest in hearing multi-stakeholder inputs as the treaty negotiations advance, noting that for the treaty to be effective and practical, it needs to be informed by multi-stakeholder input. The UK government also underlined the importance of having gender and human rights considerations in the convention’s objectives and scope, and requested stakeholders’ views in specific areas, such as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), data sharing and corporate responsibility. In its opening remarks, the GI-TOC provided background on the treaty negotiations and informed participants about the latest updates on the negotiation process.