United Nations Convention against Cybercrime: Signing Ceremony – Plenary

(25 – 26 October 2025, Hanoi, Viet Nam)

Statement by Mr Gianluca Esposito, Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law of the Council of Europe

Excellencies, Distinguished participants,

It is an honour for me to speak today on behalf of the Council of Europe.

At the outset, I wish to commend Ambassador Mebarki, her team, the experts who negotiated the Hanoi Convention, the many stakeholders involved, and the dedicated experts of the UNODC Secretariat whose tireless work has led to its adoption. I wish to thank the Vietnamese authorities for their warm hospitality.

The Council of Europe has followed the negotiations closely as an observer and has supported the participation of experts in this process.

We welcome the adoption of the Hanoi Convention and its opening for signature as an important political achievement that aligns closely with our Budapest Convention on Cybercrime.

This convergence underlines the significance of the Budapest Convention, which for twenty-five years has served as the most relevant international framework against cybercrime. The shared concepts and measures of both Conventions have great potential to strengthen global responses to this phenomenon.

The Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Convention Committee, the T-CY, which comprises 97 States, including all 81 Parties to the Budapest Convention and 16 observers, has acknowledged the consistency between the two frameworks.

During the Council of Europe’s Octopus Conference in June this year, we were honoured to host the distinguished Vietnamese authorities and experts from the UNODC to discuss the complementarity of the Hanoi and Budapest Conventions.

Governments were encouraged to sign and implement the new UN Treaty in a manner consistent with the Budapest Convention and with the conditions and safeguards contained in this new instrument.

The Hanoi Convention also provides a unique opportunity to expand co-operation with States which are not Parties to the Budapest Convention.

And States that now first become Parties to the Hanoi Convention may over time use that experience to also seek accession to the Budapest Convention framework, which contains additional tools for co-operation and criminalisation provisions in its First and Second Additional Protocols.

Proper implementation determines the success of any treaty. It is essential that the new Convention is applied with full respect for human rights and rule of law safeguards, thereby fostering mutual trust and protecting the rights of individuals in cyberspace.

Inclusiveness will be key in this process. It is important to ensure that civil society, the private sector and other stakeholders also have a voice in the implementation and in future initiatives.

The Council of Europe has supported more than 140 countries in strengthening their legal and institutional capacities. We stand ready to continue this effort and to engage constructively with the Hanoi Convention, including through co-operation with UNODC and all partners in supporting States to strengthen their frameworks.

The Hanoi Convention offers an important opportunity to reinforce global co-operation against cybercrime, in a way that complements the Budapest Convention.

Its success will ultimately depend on the shared commitment to ensuring that its human rights safeguards are not only included but fully upheld in practice.