Statement by representative of the Russian Federation Maria Zabolotskaya at the plenary meeting of the General Assembly under agenda item "Countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes"
Mr.President,
At the outset, let me welcome you and wish to the General Assembly to have an efficient year 2021. Ad hoc committee on elaboration of convention on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes is an important part of our work this year.
Russia is convinced that elaboration of a universal UN convention on countering the use of information and communication technologies for criminal purposes is a priority task of the international community.
The level of threat posed by cybercriminals increased manifold during the pandemic, which proves global relevance of this task. Proceeding from this, Russia attaches special importance to the soonest launch of full-fledged activity of the ad hoc committee on elaboration of the convention as envisaged by UNGA resolution 74/247.
Our delegation, like many other delegations in this room, was ready to commence the work on 20-22 January, in accordance with UNGA decision 74/567 adopted in August 2020. Our today's meeting runs in person, which means that UN Headquarters is ready to accommodate the committee, and we are very thankful to the Secretariat for having such an opportunity. Tasks that the committee needs to address are very important – appointment of chairperson and other officials, decisions pertaining to the time and place of sessions and their total number. Yet these tasks hardly go beyond those that UN missions in New York address on a daily basis.
Nevertheless, several days prior to the start of the session, a draft decision was introduced that proposed to reschedule the organizational session of the committee. Its sponsors cite inability of delegations from capitals to participate as an obstacle to effective work. We can frankly say that we do not share such approaches. We believe the importance of launching negotiations outweighs technical inconvenience that the pandemic may cause.
At the same time, we are glad to note that initiators of this draft decision confirmed the importance of fulfilling the committee’s mandate and expressed their commitment to this goal.
Therefore, we will not object to the proposed decision so that all delegations could be able to work in most comfortable conditions. The spirit of cooperation should become prerequisite for further efficiency of the committee.
We proceed from the assumption that on 10-12 May we will get together in these walls to attend the organizational session of the committee and join our efforts to launch substantive work on the first universal convention on countering the use of ICTs for criminal purposes.
Thank you, Mr. President.
