The United Nations on Saturday staged a signing ceremony for the Convention against Cybercrime, the world’s first agreement to combat online crime. And while 72 nations picked up the pen, critics continue to point out the convention’s flaws.

The Convention took five years to develop and has three purposes:

• Promote and strengthen measures to prevent and combat cybercrime more efficiently and effectively;
• Promote, facilitate and strengthen international cooperation in preventing and combating cybercrime; and
• Promote, facilitate and support technical assistance and capacity-building to prevent and combat cybercrime, in particular for the benefit of developing countries.

Those goals are hard to oppose.

Critics fear that while the Convention will help to prevent and combat cybercrime, it will have the unintended side effect of curbing free speech.

Support for that position has come from the likes of Electronic Frontier Foundation, Human Rights Watch, and Privacy International, who ahead of the signing ceremony published a joint statement criticising the Convention because it “obligates states to establish broad electronic surveillance powers to investigate and cooperate on a wide range of crimes, including those that don’t involve information and communication systems … without adequate human rights safeguards.”

It won’t surprise many readers that the aforementioned orgs have reached that position.

Perhaps more unexpected is that Cisco has similar concerns. In August the company’s senior director for technology policy Eric Wenger wrote: “Unfortunately, the UN Convention, as it stands, does not sufficiently protect basic human rights and poses risks to the rule of law.”

Cisco, human rights groups, and digital rights groups, have urged nations not to sign the Convention.

According to the United Nations, 72 have done so since Saturday.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the signatories.

In a speech at the signing ceremony, he hailed the Convention as “a promise that fundamental human rights such as privacy, dignity, and safety must be protected both offline and online.”

“The Convention delivers a number of major breakthroughs,” he added. “One of the most significant is the sharing of digital evidence across borders. This has long been a major obstacle to justice – with perpetrators in one country, victims in another, and data stored in a third.”

Guterres said the convention “provides a clear pathway for investigators and prosecutors to finally overcome this barrier.”

“Today’s signing is an important milestone in our shared journey to a safer digital world,” he added. “But it is only the beginning. The true power of the Convention will lie in turning signatures into tangible action.”

“It must be ratified and entered into force, without delay. It must be implemented, effectively and in full.”

He’s right: The fact that 72 nations have signed the Convention doesn’t mean they’ve passed enabling legislation, or begun to abide by the document’s rules.

The UN has not yet published a list of nations that signed the Convention, but a collection of statements in support for the document includes notes from China, Australia, Spain, Peru, South Africa, and Iran. ®