OEWG
After two years of negotiations, the UN Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security has adopted its final report. Here, APC presents its positions on the most salient points of the report.
APC welcomes the opportunity to engage in this session. We appreciate Ambassador Lauber’s openness to civil society and the OEWG’s willingness to receive and consider comments by non-state actors.
In this response to the first substantive draft of the Open-ended Working Group on ICTs (OEWG) report, APC and other civil society organisations provide general feedback, focusing on the “introductory remarks” and the “conclusions and recommendations” sections, and provide recommendations.
APC welcomes this opportunity to address comments to the zero draft of the United Nations Open-ended Working Group on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security (OEWG) report.
The informal multistakeholder virtual dialogue session taking place 25 February will create opportunities for dialogue between states and other stakeholders on the issues addressed by the UN General Assembly’s Open-Ended Working Group on ICTs (OEWG).
Cybersecurity is a human rights issue. Human rights defenders, groups that are subject to discrimination, and journalists, among others, rely on the internet to exercise their rights. An open, secure, stable and rights-based internet can only be ensured with the involvement of all stakeholders.
Global cyber governance, including the protection of a secure and stable cyberspace, cannot be limited to any one actor. Therefore, an inclusive approach to maintaining peace and stability in cyberspace is needed, as emphasised by the organisations who jointly submitted this feedback to the OEWG.
APC welcomes this opportunity to address the United Nations Open-ended Working Group and to participate in this informal dialogue with stakeholders. We urge a rights-based and inclusive approach to understanding threats in cyberspace.
From APC’s perspective, we feel it’s important to integrate cybersecurity in our broader work on internet governance capacity building, because cybersecurity touches on so many other areas of internet governance.
This statement focuses on responding to the question: How can non-governmental stakeholders contribute to the implementation of the voluntary non-binding norms of responsible state behaviour contained in the report of the 2015 Group of Governmental Experts?
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) 2020
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