65 countries sign first UN treaty to fight cybercrime
- Last updated: October 26, 2025 | 11:23
Sixty-five nations have signed a landmark United Nations treaty in Hanoi aimed at tackling cybercrime - a move Secretary-General António Guterres hailed as a historic step toward a safer digital world.
Adopted by the General Assembly in December 2024 after five years of negotiation, the Convention against Cybercrime establishes the first universal framework for investigating and prosecuting offences committed online - from ransomware and financial fraud to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
“The UN Cybercrime Convention is a powerful, legally binding instrument to strengthen our collective defences against cybercrime,” said Guterres at the signing ceremony on Saturday.
“It is a testament to the continued power of multilateralism to deliver solutions. And it is a vow that no country, no matter their level of development, will be left defenceless against cybercrime.”
The signing ceremony was hosted by Vietnam in collaboration with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), drawing senior officials, diplomats and experts from across regions.
The new treaty criminalises a range of cyber-dependent and cyber-enabled offences, facilitates the sharing of electronic evidence across borders and establishes a 24/7 cooperation network among States.
It also makes history as the first international treaty to recognise the non-consensual dissemination of intimate images as an offence - a significant victory for victims of online abuse.
It will enter into force 90 days after the 40th State deposits its ratification.
In his remarks, Guterres warned that while technology has brought “extraordinary progress,” it has also created new vulnerabilities.
“Every day, sophisticated scams defraud families, steal livelihoods and drain billions of dollars from our economies,” he said. “In cyberspace, nobody is safe until everybody is safe. One vulnerability anywhere can expose people and institutions everywhere.”
The Secretary-General emphasised the Convention represents “a victory for victims of online abuse” and “a clear pathway for investigators and prosecutors” to overcome barriers to justice when crimes and evidence cross multiple borders.
By providing a global standard for electronic evidence, the treaty aims to improve cooperation between law enforcement agencies while safeguarding privacy, dignity and fundamental human rights.
The new convention is expected to reshape how countries tackle cybercrime at a time when digital threats are rising sharply. Global cybercrime costs are projected to reach $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, according to industry experts.
For many governments, particularly in the Global South, the treaty represents an opportunity to access training, technical assistance and real-time cooperation channels.
“Let us seize this moment,” Guterres said. “Let us build a cyberspace that respects everyone’s dignity and human rights - and ensure that the digital age delivers peace, security and prosperity for all.”
The UN Convention against Cybercrime was first proposed by Russian diplomats in 2017, and approved by consensus last year after lengthy negotiations.
Critics say its broad language could lead to abuses of power and enable the cross-border repression of government critics.
“There were multiple concerns raised throughout the negotiation of the treaty around how it actually ends up compelling companies to share data,” said Sabhanaz Rashid Diya, founder of the Tech Global Institute think tank.
“It’s almost rubber-stamping a very problematic practice that has been used against journalists and in authoritarian countries,” she told reporters.
The far-reaching online scam industry, for example, has ballooned in Southeast Asia in recent years, with thousands of scammers estimated to be involved and victims worldwide conned out of billions of dollars annually.
“Even for the most democratic states, I think they need some degree of access to data that they’re not getting under existing mechanisms,” Diya told AFP.
Democratic countries might describe the UN convention as a “compromise document”, as it contains some human rights provisions, she added.
But these safeguards were slammed as “weak” in a letter signed by more than a dozen rights groups and other organisations.
Big technology companies have also raised concerns.
The Cybersecurity Tech Accord delegation to the treaty talks, representing more than 160 firms including Meta, Dell and India’s Infosys, will not be present in Hanoi, its head Nick Ashton-Hart said.
Among other objections, those companies previously warned that the convention could criminalise cybersecurity researchers and “allows states to cooperate on almost any criminal act they choose”.
Potential overreach by authorities poses “serious risks to corporate IT systems relied upon by billions of people every day”, they said during the negotiation process.
Agencies