The delegation, led by Vietnamese Ambassador to Austria Nguyen Trung Kien, included representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National Defence, and the Ministry of Justice.

Speaking on the opening day of the session, which lasted from January 9 to 20, the delegation highly valued efforts by the Secretariat of the Ad Hoc Committee in building the first draft, which laid a solid foundation for the next negotiations to soon finalise the draft convention and submit it to the UN General Assembly for ratification.

The final draft is expected to be finalised by the end of 2023 and submitted to the UN General Assembly for ratification in 2024.

The Vietnamese side also gave opinions about some parts of the draft such as the scope of the convention, offences against information technology (IT) systems, IT-based scams, and individual criminal responsibility.

In recent years, protecting cyber safety and security and combating cybercrimes have become a crucial part in the security strategies of many countries.

After 10 years of negotiations by inter-governmental working groups, in 2019, the UN General Assembly decided to set up the Ad Hoc Committee to build an international convention for promoting international cooperation against ICT crimes. The committee establishment reflected the international community’s concern about growing threats posed by ICT crimes, and also showed UN member states’ efforts to create the first international legal document covering this issue.

At the three sessions held in 2022, the Ad Hoc Committee agreed on the negotiation roadmap and identified the structure and basic content of the future convention. Countries began discussing the draft in detail from the beginning of 2023.

The final draft is expected to be finalised by the end of 2023 and submitted to the UN General Assembly for ratification in 2024.