I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Norway and my own country, Australia.

Strengthening crime prevention and criminal justice responses requires strong cooperation between countries and has a long and proud history of consensus in the UN. We are pleased to see this tradition of consensus upheld in this resolution. In particular, we are pleased to see consensus on retaining the use of the term ‘cybercrime’ in this resolution.

Cybercrime is an established and well-understood term that has been widely used by the international community since at least 2010. Both in the UN and in regional for a, there are  numerous instruments focussed on cybercrime.

Alternate language that was proposed during the course of these negotiations has never achieved international consensus. Rather, the introduction of vague terminology that does not provide certainy in scope and application risks undermining the good work and momentum that the international community has built to address this serious issue.

We acknowledge that discussion on appropriate terminology is currently underway under the Ad Hoc Committee to Elaborate a Comprehensive International Convention on Countering the Use of Information and Communications Technologies for Criminal Purposes. We believe this is the appropriate forum to debate and agree on terminology, and not the Third Committee to set precedent.

We appreciate the penholders efforts to introduce new language that recognised the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on increased risks to gender-based violence against women. We regret that member states could not agree to the inclusion of this language in this resolution in the context of strengthening criminal justice systems. We consider this a missed opportunity, and look forward to working with all member states to review this language in the future, as it is pertinent to this issue.

I thank you.