From 21 August to 1 September 2023, delegates debated a zero draft of the United Nations Treaty on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes, or more succinctly referred to as the ‘cybercrime treaty’, at a UN session in New York. The purpose of the meeting was to agree on as many provisions as possible. However, this progress was not possible as differences between countries continue to prevent any major steps towards consensus.

Throughout this process, GI-TOC has submitted several statements and guidance notes outlining its positions on the key points of the treaty. In the spirit of continued engagement, and with a view to contributing ahead of the next draft of the treaty, which is due to be presented in November, the GI-TOC outlines here some key recommendations for member states to consider on the issues of the scope of the treaty.

This contribution focuses solely on these specific cross-cutting topics, which the chair of the committee highlighted as priorities for moving the negotiations forward ahead of informal negotiations that were held in Vienna in October.