Statement by the Cybersecurity Education Initiative (CYSED)

Delivered to the Plenary of the Signing Ceremony for the United Nations Convention against CybercrimeHanoi, Viet Nam – October 2025

Mr./Madam Chair, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates,

On behalf of the Cybersecurity Education Initiative (CYSED), Africa’s leading youth-driven nonprofit working to prevent cybercrime and advance cybersecurity, we congratulate the Member States on this historic achievement: the adoption of the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime.

Speaking from the front lines of digital resilience in West Africa, we see daily that this legal architecture is vital. But we also know that legal frameworks alone cannot solve the human problem at the heart of cybercrime. Across our region, organized cybercrime groups (OCGs) exploit economic vulnerabilities and digital illiteracy, luring young people into global criminal networks.

This Convention provides the tools for prosecution, but its greatest power may lie in its potential for prevention, a principle established in its scope under Article 3. Its success will be measured not only by the criminals it brings to justice, but by the young people it empowers to resist a life of cybercrime in the first place.

Youth today stand at a crossroads. They can be victims of these crimes, the targets of recruitment, or our champions of digital integrity and resilience.

Therefore, as Member States move towards ratification and implementation, we call for the robust application of the preventive measures detailed in Article 53. This article is the heart of societal resilience, and its success hinges on Paragraph 2, which mandates the active participation of civil society. We encourage you to see organizations like ours not merely as stakeholders, but as the essential implementation partners envisioned by the Convention itself and ready to operationalize the preventive programs envisioned under Article 53, Paragraph 3(f).

CYSED reaffirms its commitment to this cause, working alongside governments, institutions and communities to ensure that prevention remains at the core of the fight against cybercrime. Let us ensure the Hanoi Convention is not only a treaty on paper, but a shield in practice for the next generation.

Thank you. Mr./Madam Chair