Yvon Dandurand

A week ago, on July 16, Canada officially signed the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime[1], becoming the 79th signatory.  After years of work, the convention was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 24, 2024, and first opened for signature in Hanoi, Vietnam, on October 25, 2025. The convention aims to boost international law enforcement cooperation, improve cross-border electronic evidence sharing, and protect human rights.[2] It contains a range of measures to prevent and combat cybercrime.

Canada actively participated in negotiations for the convention, playing a constructive role and advancing Canadian priorities, including respect for human rights, democracy and the rule of law. It is also currently participating in the negotiations regarding the rules of procedure for the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime.

The convention will come into force once it has been ratified by 40 states. At present, only three states have ratified it: Qatar, Azerbaijan and Viet Nam.[3] The convention is being signed amid mounting global levels of cybercrimes and related cyber-dependent organized criminal activities. The use of information and communications technology systems can have a considerable impact on the scale, speed and scope of a wide range of criminal offences. The convention presents a unique opportunity to enhance online safety while also protecting human rights and privacy. It emphasizes the need for governments and the private sector to work together to establish and enforce international cybersecurity standards that address not only technical aspects but also overall governance.[4]

One should not underestimate the wicked obstacles that hinder the development of a more effective multilateral cooperation framework to combat cybercrime. The new convention is dealing with a more divisive topic, and the geopolitical circumstances are not particularly favourable. Lessons may be drawn from two previous United Nations attempts to boost international cooperation against serious transnational criminal threats: UNTOC and UNCAC. The legacy cooperation mechanisms we inherited from that era were significant steps forward in facilitating cooperation. Yet, despite the progress achieved then and over the following two decades, cooperation in the prevention, investigation and prosecution of transnational crime remains largely ineffectual.

How ineffectual? How bad is it? That’s certainly an open question. There is very little reliable data on international cooperation activities. The process is quite opaque. Who knows what level of cooperation between states occurs below the surface? Unfortunately, neither the UNTOC nor UNCAC formal review mechanisms have yet produced a clear picture of the progress accomplished over the last twenty-five years or so.

Whatever the initial merits of those legacy cooperation mechanisms, they are now largely inefficient in light of new technologies and the constant shifts in criminal patterns. The global cooperation regime is complex, slow, and disjointed. For most states, current legacy cooperation mechanisms are impractical, unaffordable and unsustainable.

International cooperation in criminal matters remains in a constantly unstable state. Currently, several shifts and trends affect international cooperation, including complex geopolitics, shifting alliances, and declining trust in international institutions. However, what is especially concerning is that no clear vision has yet been established for what a desirable end state might look like, particularly regarding effective international cooperation against cybercrime.

Indeed, times have changed. Many states now show a growing preference for bilateral, regional, and generally less formal and less binding cooperation arrangements. They tend to favour narrow, informal approaches that reaffirm their sovereignty without being tied to the rule of law and human rights. Some powerful States, having achieved some success at the bilateral and regional levels, are de facto signalling their disinterest in a global, multilateral approach.[5]

Global cooperation can prevail over global dysfunction if states can clearly identify areas where their national interests merge or are at least compatible. The toughest challenge ahead will be that technical innovations move too quickly for States to understand and adjust their responses. Any new cooperation mechanism needs to be flexible. Another new challenge will be that of engaging the private sector in the cooperation loops.

In the end, however, one must not forget that international cooperation may be enabled by multilateral treaties, bilateral agreements, and national laws, but that such instruments are not ends in themselves. Effective international cooperation invariably depends on maintaining relationships of mutual recognition, trust, and reciprocity. The extension of trust from one state to another, or from one law enforcement agency to another, is what makes cooperation in fighting transnational crime possible. Reciprocity is what makes it sustainable. However, reciprocity is increasingly redefined in an ad-hoc, mostly transactional manner, without reference to a broader normative framework.

States cannot adopt a myopic view of the challenges of cooperation ahead and of what is needed to overcome them. Our globalized world is more dependent on trust than ever before. Yet, in the current geopolitical context, in an increasingly polarized world, trust is in low supply.

[1] 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.

[2] For the full text of the convention: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/cybercrime/convention/text/convention-full-text.html

[3] For a full list of signatories and parties: https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_no=XVIII-16&chapter=18&clang=_en

[4] Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (2023). Intersection: Building Blocks of a Global Strategy against Organized Crime. https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Intersections-Building-blocks-of-a-global-strategy-against-organized-crime-2024.pdf

[5] Dandurand, Y. & Jahn, J. (2023). The Future of International Cooperation Against Transnational Organized Crime. Geneva: GI-TOC. https://globalinitiative.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/GITOC-The-future-of-international-cooperation-against-transnational-organized-crime.pdf

Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash.