On 24 December 2024 the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted (by Resolution without a vote) 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 (UN Convention Against Cybercrime) (UN Doc. A/79/460 para 2 and Annex). The UN Convention Against Cybercrime shall be open to all States for signature in Hanoi in 2025 and thereafter at United Nations Headquarters in New York until 31 December 2026 (Art 64(1)).
Jurisdictional responsibilities under the UN Convention Against Cybercrime will extend to ocean governance, include responsibilities to adopt any measures necessary to establish jurisdiction over offences “committed on board a vessel that is flying the flag of that State Party or an aircraft that is registered under the laws of that State Party at the time when the offence is committed” (Art 22(1)(b)). Additional discretionary prescriptive jurisdiction under Art 22(2) may also have application to offences committed at sea. Likewise, “Each State Party shall make the commission of an offence established in accordance with this Convention liable to effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions that take into account the gravity of the offence” (Art 21).
A wide range of offences are found in Arts 7-19. Furthermore, one should note Art 4(1) may be of interest concerning other UN treaties that create offenses for identified acts at sea as shared offenses (‘maritime terrorism’) or transnational organized crimes:
“In giving effect to other applicable United Nations conventions and protocols to which they are Parties, States Parties shall ensure that criminal offences established in accordance with such conventions and protocols are also considered criminal offences under domestic law when committed through the use of information and communications technology systems“.
One may also note the preamble references the Parties being “concerned that the use of information and communications technology systems can have a considerable impact on the scale, speed and scope of criminal offences, including offences related to terrorism and transnational organized crime, such as trafficking in persons, the smuggling of migrants, the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts, components and ammunition, drug trafficking and trafficking in cultural property”.
The Ad Hoc Committee shall continue its work with a view to negotiating a draft protocol supplementary to the Convention, addressing, inter alia, additional criminal offences as appropriate (UN Doc. A/79/460 para 5).
De Maribus 