GPD unveils new guide to fostering inclusive cyber norm processes

GPD today publishes the Inclusive Cyber Norms Toolkit, a pathbreaking new resource which aims to support and empower policymakers and other stakeholders to ensure a fully inclusive approach to the development and implementation of cyber norms.

Inspiration for creating the toolkit emerged out of GPD’s extensive engagement in global and regional processes to develop cyber norms, where we found a troubling absence of input and perspectives from marginalised communities and groups—including women, LGBTQ+ communities, racialised groups, people in the Global South, activists and security researchers. Such groups often experience particular and elevated risks and obstacles to participation in cyberspace, and it’s therefore critically important that their voices are heard and centred in cyber policy processes.

Many policymakers we spoke to understood the need to address inclusivity in cyber norms discussions, but said they lacked the specific guidance and tools to do so. In response, we reached out to a range of noted experts on cybersecurity, gender and inclusivity, drawing on their insights to build out a comprehensive package of action-oriented guidance for policymakers.

The resulting toolkit—which is available in both English and Spanish—comprises several linked resources:

• A how-to guide on developing an inclusive process to develop a cybernorm or implement existing agreed norms
• An introduction to key terms and concepts relevant to inclusivity and cybernorms
• Key questions for facilitating inclusive stakeholder mapping processes
• A mapping of regional and global cybernorm processes

In developing the toolkit, we benefited from a range of important prior works of research, from organisations including APC, Chatham House, the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and from the perspectives of multiple experts.

The toolkit will be officially launched at a side event on 26 July 2023 at the fifth substantive session of the UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on ICTs, taking place from 24-28 July in New York. The event is co-organised with Derechos Digitales, Fundacion Karisma and R3D, and with the support of the delegation of Colombia.

You can register for the event here.