Algeria successfully leads the UN approach to fight against cybercrime

Algeria achieved remarkable diplomatic success during its presidency of the first session of the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee responsible for drawing up a comprehensive international convention on the fight against the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for Criminal Purposes, held recently at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and whose work was concluded last Friday.

Despite the concerns that preceded the meeting, given the high tension in international relations and the state of polarization resulting from the Ukrainian crisis, which cast its shadow over all multilateral activities, particularly at United Nations level, the Algerian presidency of the UN Committee, led by Ambassador Faouzia Mebarki, Algerian representative to the United Nations office in Vienna, was able to reconcile points of view and reach the necessary consensus between the delegations.

This was done through a series of consultations that she conducted to ease tensions, promote the path of dialogue and work not to politicize the negotiations, emphasizing the technical aspect of the fight against cybercrime, which is on the rise and threatens all countries without exception.

The foresight of Algerian diplomacy and the impartiality it demonstrated throughout its presidency of the meeting also contributed to the success of this first session, which constitutes a very important stage for the start of the preparation of the first Global international convention which obliges States to cooperate in order to prevent and fight against the use of (ICT) for criminal purposes, in accordance with the decision of the General Assembly of the United Nations n 247/74, adopted in December 2019.

It should be noted that the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee responsible for drawing up a comprehensive international convention on the fight against the use of ICTs for criminal purposes, had adopted at the end of its work last Friday, a number of documents, such as the committee’s roadmap and working method.

As a reminder, Algeria had been elected, by a majority, by the United Nations General Assembly in May 2021, to chair the work of this United Nations committee, which should present the draft of the new international treaty during the work of the 78th session of the UN GA scheduled for 2024.

Ahmed Achour