KII Space offers an academic recommendation to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the New UN Convention against Cybercrime


“Academic Recommendation Submitting to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs - the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq to the United Nations Office via the Kurdistan Innovation Institute (KII) Space”

Dr. Fahil Abdulbasit A. Abdulkareem
Technical Institute of Administration

Following three years of intense negotiations on the issue of countering the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) for criminal purposes, with organisational and technical assistance from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Resolution 74/247 (United Nations, 2020)[1], which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 27, 2019, calls for the creation of an intergovernmental, open-ended ad hoc committee of experts representing all parts of the world to negotiate a comprehensive international convention on countering the use of ICTs for criminal purposes. This convention will take into account all available international instruments and national and international efforts to counter the use of ICTs for criminal purposes. By adopting resolution 75/272 (United Nations, 2021)[2] on creating a roadmap for the ad hoc committee on May 26, 2021, the committee was tasked by the General Assembly to present them with a draft international convention. As a result, on August 9, 2024, the United Nations Committee for the Negotiation of an International Convention to counter Cybercrime unanimously approved the draft (United Nations, 2024)[3] of the new convention. This was done in order to prepare it for submission to the UN General Assembly for adoption following a vote on it and to allow countries to sign the convention to join. With the intention of enhancing international cooperation in the combat against cybercrimes, which are known to fall under the transnational (cross-border) category, the current draft convention adopts the principle of passive personality for the jurisdiction of the countries that are anticipated to open the door for signing the convention at the end of this year until December 31, 2026. This passive personality jurisdiction pertains to the category of serious crimes (the serious category of cybercrime), which each state may define in a way that may be in opposition to the protective principle of jurisdiction of states, as this protective principle is acknowledged in the current international instruments concerning trials and investigations.

The States Parties to the convention are granted the authority to exercise their jurisdiction over extraterritorial criminal conduct (serious crime) committed by a national of another State Party to the convention or by a stateless person who habitually resides within the borders of these States due to Article 22 (United Nations, 2024b)[4] of Chapter Three of the draft convention, which contains six paragraphs pertaining to the jurisdiction of the States Parties. In other words, if a criminal conduct (serious crime) has harmed a citizen of a state that has ratified the convention, it will cede its jurisdictional sovereignty (the jurisdiction to protect its citizens and residents within its borders) to the other states parties to the convention, even if the crime took place outside of its borders. As a result, according to the current draft of the convention, the creeping jurisdiction of the States Parties to the convention is equivalent to expanding the jurisdiction outside of their borders, allowing technologically advanced nations like the United States and others to infiltrate (creep) judicially and circumvent the principle of judicial protection of other States Parties to the convention, particularly those that are less technologically advanced. This is done by using the passive personality jurisdiction of the latter states (less technologically advanced) in favor of the former states (more technologically advanced).

Therefore, through our recently opened KII space at DPU, the following academic recommendation is submitting to the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Permanent Mission of the Republic of Iraq to the United Nations Office:

  • The Iraqi Permanent Mission should collaborate with other countries that have concerns about the convention and are working to amend it in order to remove the risks associated with extending the passive personality jurisdiction of the states parties to the convention (removing creeping jurisdiction) before the date on which the United Nations General Assembly votes to adopt the convention in its final form and then open the door to membership for states, internationally.
  • The draft law on information crimes that the Iraqi government earlier transmitted to the Iraqi Council of Representatives may be retrieved by the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq in order to amend its provisions in light of the recently adopted United Nations Convention against Cybercrime. This will assist in bringing the nation's laws into line with the new UN Convention against Cybercrime in terms of technology. In the meantime, an initiative to increase awareness of cybersecurity among judges in particular and the Iraqi judicial system in general could be launched, utilizing the role of the Technology Centre of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council in conjunction with the Kurdistan Innovation Institute (KII) Space at our university. This academic recommendation will be fulfilled by coordinating the operations of these two organizations with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) Global Program on Cybercrime.
  1. See: United Nations. (2020, January). Countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes. United Nations. Retrieved from https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n19/440/28/pdf/n1944028.pdf?OpenElement
  2. See: United Nations. (2021, May). Countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes (report A/RES/75/282). United Nations (pp. 1–3). Retrieved from https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n21/133/51/pdf/n2113351.pdf
  3. See: United Nations. (2024, August). Draft resolution for consideration by the General Assembly. Retrieved from https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/v24/055/48/pdf/v2405548.pdf
  4. See: United Nations. (2024b, July). Draft United Nations convention against cybercrime. United Nations (p. 11), Retrieved from https://libya.un.org/sites/default/files/2024-08/v2405506.pdf