United Nations Convention against Cybercrime

The European Parliament adopted by 497 votes to 91, with 46 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the draft Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime; Strengthening International Cooperation for Combating Certain Crimes Committed by Means of Information and Communications Technology Systems and for the Sharing of Evidence in Electronic Form of Serious Crimes.

Parliament gave its consent to the conclusion of the Agreement.

The aim of the Convention is to enhance international cooperation on criminal offences established in the Convention and the collection of electronic evidence of crimes defined in the Convention and of other serious crimes for the purpose of specific criminal investigations or proceedings. In this regard, the Convention also aims to promote technical assistance and capacity-building, in particular for the benefit of developing countries.

The Convention is in conformity with the security objectives of the European Union, namely ensuring a high level of security through measures to prevent and combat crime and through measures for coordination and cooperation between police and judicial authorities and other competent authorities, as well as through the approximation of criminal laws.

The convention:

- applies to specific criminal investigations or proceedings concerning criminal offences established in accordance with the convention, as well as to the exchange of evidence in electronic form concerning serious offences (offences punishable by a maximum custodial sentence of at least four years' imprisonment or a heavier penalty);

- harmonises a limited set of clearly defined offences while allowing the necessary flexibility for State Parties to avoid overcriminalization of legitimate conduct;

- establishes only minimum rules on the liability of legal persons for the offences set out therein and does not require establishing such criminal liability in a manner that would be inconsistent with a State Party’s legal principles;

- provides for robust human rights safeguards and excludes any interpretation that would lead to suppressing human rights or fundamental freedoms, in particular the freedoms of expression, conscience, opinion, religion or belief, peaceful assembly and association;

- provides with regard to the powers and procedural measures both at domestic and international levels, for horizontal conditions and safeguards ensuring the protection of human rights. These conditions and safeguards shall include, among others, judicial or other independent review, the right to an effective remedy, grounds justifying application and the limitation of the scope and the duration of the powers and procedures;

- includes a dedicated provision on the protection of personal data which ensures that important data protection principles, including purpose limitation, data minimisation, proportionality and necessity must be applied, in accordance with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, before any personal data can be provided to another State Party.

Given that the Convention provides for procedures that improve cross-border access to electronic evidence and a high level of safeguards, becoming a Party to it will promote consistency in the European Union’s efforts in combating cybercrime and other forms of crime at global level.