Session
Organizer 1: Joey Shea, Human Rights Watch
Organizer 2: Deborah Brown, 🔒
Organizer 3: al-Hathloul Lina, ALQST
Speaker 1: al-Hathloul Lina, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Deborah Brown, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 3: Fionnuala Ní Aolain, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 4: Veridiana Alimonti Civil Society, Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC)
Speaker 5: Nick Ashton-Hart, Private Sector, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Joey Shea, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Joey Shea, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Deborah Brown, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 90
Format description: A round table setup will encourage full interaction between the participants and ensures an interactive workshop with the group.
● How can the UN Cybercrimes treaty facilitate transnational repression and what are the consequences of that? ● How would the UN Cybercrimes treaty impact rights and freedoms in repressive states? ● What are more rights respecting approaches that stakeholders can adopt to address cybercrime?
What will participants gain from attending this session? The participants will gain a deeper understanding of the UN Cybercrime treaty's provisions that could facilitate cross-border human rights violations. The participants will develop knowledge of two key issues. First, how the Treaty permits the sharing of electronic evidence between Member States and so expose communities and individuals to increased surveillance. Second, how member states could risk complicity in human rights abuses when sharing electronic evidence with abusive governments. Following that, the discussion will tackle key recommendations to ensure a more rights-respecting approach to addressing cybercrime that adhere to international human rights law.
Description:
This workshop will focus on the UN Cybercrime treaty, which is due to be adopted in August 2024. The discussion will center on fostering a safe and secure online environment while maintaining trust, data protection, and privacy in the governance of the Internet. At its core, the discussion will promote ensuring that enforcement of the UN Cybercrime treaty respects human rights and prevents cross-border rights abuses. The workshop will discuss the treaty’s potential to facilitate transnational repression as a result of the legal regimes it is likely to create. Specifically, the draft treaty provides for the cross-border sharing of information for any crimes that carry a minimum sentence of three or four years, in a manner that would infringe on international human rights standards, including the requirements for prior judicial authorization and the principles of legality, non discrimination, legitimate purpose, necessity, and proportionality. The workshop will examine the potential for this treaty to permit surveillance on a broad range of crimes, beyond cybercrime, and facilitate transnational repression. The speakers will provide an overview of the UN Cybercrime treaty, explain the international cooperation measures provided for by the treaty and assess the treaty against international human rights norms, provide a case study of how the treaty will facilitate cross border repression, and provide a company perspective.
Outcomes: Our session aims at advocating for a more robust and right respecting approach to addressing cybercrimes in line with international human rights standards. As the UN Cybercrime treaty is taking shape, this discussion at IGF feeds into civil society’s calls for transparency and accountability as well as building more pressure on member states to fulfill their human rights responsibilities and uphold human rights standards to ensure enforcement that complies with international human rights standards. Outputs: Publications: Human Rights Watch and ALQST will publish a news release with the outcomes of the workshop.
Hybrid Format: We will structure the workshop in a way that will allow interaction with participants via chat and inside the workshop space itself. Online participants will be able to send their questions or comments via the online platform’s chat or raise their hand to speak, which the facilitator will handle. The workshop will be a self-paced hybrid session with the facilitator merging online and offline participation. And will also include a Q&A segment led by the moderator and then questions from the audience. For online participants and speakers, we will be using an online platform for virtual participation which participants and speakers will call in to listen and speak.