Building on the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, the UN Secretary-General appoints an inaugural Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Leadership Panel as ‘a strategic, empowered, and multistakeholder body to support and strengthen the IGF’. The Panel’s key functions are to: provide strategic inputs and advice on the IGF; promote the IGF and its outputs; support both high-level and at-large stakeholder engagement in the IGF and IGF fundraising efforts; and exchange IGF outputs from the Forum with other stakeholders and relevant fora and facilitate the feeding of input of these decision-makers and fora to the IGF’s agenda-setting process.
Timeline
Our Common Agenda and the road to a Global Digital Compact
The UN Secretary-General issues the Our Common Agenda report, outlining his vision on the future of global cooperation. Among other elements, the Secretary-General envisions the adoption of a Global Digital Compact (GDC) to ‘outline shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all’. The GDC is to be agreed up during a Summit of the Future, planned for September 2024.
2021 UN GGE Final Report
The UN GGE concluded its work with this Report. Cybersecurity process will shift to the UN OEWG.
2021 UN GGE Report: Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security (A/RES/76/135)
Report of the First UN OEWG on Cybersecurity
- Reaffirmation of the results of the previous reports of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE), as well as that international law, and in particular the Charter of the UN, is applicable to cyberspace
- Norms do not replace or alter states’ obligations or rights under international law – which are binding – but rather provide additional and specific guidance on what constitutes responsible state behaviour in the use of ICTs
- Recommendation that states voluntarily identify and consider CBMs
- Recommends that appropriate to their specific contexts, and cooperate with other states on their implementation
- Comprehensive capacity building measures in the field of ICT security
First Report of the UN OEWG on Cybersecurity
- Reaffirmation of the results of the previous reports of the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE), as well as that international law, and in particular the Charter of the UN, is applicable to cyberspace
- Norms do not replace or alter states’ obligations or rights under international law – which are binding – but rather provide additional and specific guidance on what constitutes responsible state behaviour in the use of ICTs
- Recommendation that states voluntarily identify and consider CBMs
- Recommends that appropriate to their specific contexts, and cooperate with other states on their implementation
- Comprehensive capacity building measures in the field of ICT security
Establishment of the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology
The Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology is established following the Secretary-General’s appointment of his inaugural Envoy on Technology. Responsibilities of the Office include: leading the implementation of the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation; facilitating dialogue on the recommendations of the Roadmap and related parts of the Our Common Agenda report; and serving as an advocate and focal point for digital cooperation.
Starting July 2022, the position of Envoy on Technology has been held by Mr. Amandeep Singh Gill.
Establishment of the Second UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Cybersecurity (A/C.1/75/L.8)
- The renewal of the OEWG for a period of five years – 2021 to 2025, with the same mandate
- The organisational session of the new OEWG be held in 2021 and includes the establishment of thematic subgroups, allowing interaction with other stakeholders.
- The group is to provide an annual progress report and a final report to the 80th UNGA, starting in autumn 2025.
Establishment of the Second UN Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) on Cybersecurity
Consult UN GA Resolution on Establishment of the Second OEWG that includes:
- The renewal of the OEWG for a period of five years – 2021 to 2025, with the same mandate
- The organisational session of the new OEWG be held in 2021 and includes the establishment of thematic subgroups, allowing interaction with other stakeholders.
- The group is to provide an annual progress report and a final report to the 80th UNGA, starting in autumn 2025.
Launch of the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation
The UN Secretary-General presents the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, building upon the recommendations outlined in the report of the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation. The Roadmap indicates the main signposts ahead of us and proposes practical policy actions around the following key areas: connectivity, digital public goods, digital inclusion, digital capacity building, digital human rights, digital trust and security, critical infrastructure, and global digital cooperation.