UNIDIR Director Dr Robin Geiss joined global leaders, including the UN Secretary General António Gutierrez and other senior UN officials in Hanoi, Viet Nam, for the signing ceremony of the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime, convened by the Government of Viet Nam and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on 25-26 October.
Adopted by consensus by the UN General Assembly in 2024, the Convention represents the first UN treaty aimed at strengthening international cooperation to prevent and combat cybercrime. It provides a comprehensive legal framework for criminalization, procedural measures, and cross-border cooperation, including mutual legal assistance and 24/7 contact networks, to address cybercrime.
The Hanoi signing marks a milestone for multilateralism — the culmination of five years of negotiation and a shared commitment of UN Member States to building a safer, more resilient digital future.
UNIDIR’s role in shaping cooperation
Dr Geiss participated in the high-level roundtable on the UN Convention against Cybercrime: A Platform to Safeguard Sovereignty and Strengthen Multilateralism, moderated by Viet Nam and featuring senior representatives from Palau, China and Iran. He underscored that UNIDIR’s work applies the UN General Assembly’s cyber capacity-building principles in practice, ensuring assistance remains demand-driven, context-specific, and rights-respecting, so that international cooperation reinforces sovereignty and institutional resilience.
In parallel, UNIDIR and Viet Nam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs co-hosted an expert-level side event, Smarter Threats, Smarter Defenses: AI Use Cases in Cybercrime and Cybersecurity, with speakers from Global Affairs Canada, Google, Mythos Labs, and the SecDev Group. The session explored how artificial intelligence can be harnessed responsibly to detect and counter cybercrime threats.
UNIDIR’s participation in the signing ceremony highlights its commitment to advancing international cooperation, capacity-building, and responsible innovation in the service of global cyber stability.
