This extract is taken from the October 2019 issue of The digest, GPD’s newsletter. Sign up here.
*
A few updates from October:
- GPD was in Addis Ababa for the Annual Meeting of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE)—where our Senior Programme Lead (and GFCE Advisory Board member) Daniela Schnidrig and Executive Director Lea Kaspar facilitated workshops, participated in a meeting to coordinate cyber capacity building in Sierra Leone, and contributed insight on strategy and coordination. The Annual Meeting was notably better attended by non-governmental stakeholders than in previous years, and featured strong representation and participation from the region.
- Also in Addis Ababa this month: the last of the regional consultations into the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) process, co-organised by the African Union and the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs. Some key takeaways here.
- The UN’s First Committee saw two resolutions drafted this month: one sponsored by the US, the other by the Russian Federation (sound familiar?). While both call for the inclusion of “Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security” in discussions at UNGA’s 75th session, they have different aims and emphases: the US-sponsored resolution centers the responsible state behaviour framework and the GGE, while the Russian one refers to “criminal and terrorist” uses of ICTs, and emphasises the Open-Ended Working Group.
- It isn’t just the UN’s First Committee discussing cyber. A resolution on “cybercrime” is currently being discussed at the Third Committee, and could be adopted as early as December—possibly resulting in a new mechanism to develop a global instrument on cybercrime. Very little is public yet, but we’ll stay tuned and keep you updated.
- Finally, GPD joined fourteen other civil society organisations in signing a joint statement on “cyber peace and human security”. Read it here.