The United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime

Organized crime groups and individuals are using technologically advanced tools and methods to prey on the most vulnerable members of society. With increasing efficiency and technological savvy, these groups are able to weaponize violence and terror while hiding deeper in unaccountable shadows. 

Smart electronic devices and advanced software aid perpetrators and pose new challenges to law enforcement agencies around the world in their efforts to detect and disrupt criminal activities in cyberspace.  Cybercriminals have the ability to target and disrupt government, civil society, and private sector information and communication technology systems through cyber-attacks, causing serious harm to victims.

Cybercrime activities undermine the rule of law and violate human rights.

Fighting Cybercrime

Over the past two decades, there has been an upward trend in child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the Internet, with a greater proportion affecting girls. Data published by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK-based charity with which Rapha collaborates, shows that girls continue to be the group most affected by child sexual abuse material. CSAM has an inherent gender dimension and needs to be addressed from a gender perspective, especially at the level of prevention. Faced with unprecedented challenges, the United Nations and its Member States decided to establish an open-ended ad hoc intergovernmental committee of experts, including representative of all regions, to draft a comprehensive international convention to counter the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes.

In February 2022, Rapha International was granted permission by the UN Ad Hoc Committee to join the multi-stakeholder group to engage with UN Member States in the process of drafting the new convention. After five negotiating sessions and five intersessional dialogues over the course of a year and a half, Draft Zero has been under review by Member States for the past few weeks.

United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on Cybercrime

Representing Rapha International, Gerson Nozea has been present at the UN headquarters in New York for the past two weeks to participate in these review sessions. In Rapha’s capacity as a stakeholder, Gerson has taken the floor on several occasions during the negotiation process to make recommendations to Member States, held bilateral talks with Mission delegates, and presented at a side event on the margins of the negotiations, advocating for provisions to tackle CSAM in the new convention. 

Once completed, adopted, and ratified, Member States will have this convention as a framework for enacting laws to protect their citizens from cybercriminals and sufficient legal grounds to prosecute perpetrators. Rapha is honored to have a voice in this important policy work, advocating from a survivor-focused perspective in this collaboration among different sectors and different countries with the goal of protecting the vulnerable from exploitation. 

Join Rapha in making a global impact for vulnerable children!