IGF 2018 WS #304
Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace

Issue(s)

Other
Sub-theme description: Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace; Good Practices and Recommendations

Organizer 1: Qendresa Hoxha, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs
Organizer 2: Vladimir Radunovic, DiploFoundation
Organizer 3: Kerstin Vignard, UNIDIR

Speaker 1: Frank Grütter, Government, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Vladimir Radunovic, Civil Society, Eastern European Group
Speaker 3: Camino Kavanagh, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)

Moderator

DiploFoundation, Marilia Maciel

Online Moderator

DiploFoundation, Katharina Hoene

Rapporteur

FDFA, Qendresa Hoxha

Format

Panel - 60 Min

Interventions

To open up the panel, the invited speakers will each describe their views on the topic in their field of expertise in the form of a short statement and each will end their statement with a question. The statements can also present rather controversial views in order to provoke interesting discussions. The participats can ask questions anytime, also during the statements of the panellists. There will be approximately 40 minutes left for an interactive discussion with the participants. The questions raised by the speakers will be used as a starting point for the discussion with the audience / panel participants. The moderator will prepare a list of questions to ask the audience during the discussion, if needed.

Diversity

The theme of the discussion during this panel is itself diverse; it looks at responsible behaviour in cyberspace not only of states but also industry actors, civil society, academic and tech communities. Therefore we expect participants from all these thematic fields to join the session.
As for the panellists, industry representatives as well as civil society and academia representatives (male and female) will be invited to present their view on the topic of responsible behaviour in cyberspace and engage in the discussion with the participants.
The speakers indicated above are a first suggestion. The final list of speakers will contain experts from all stakeholder groups (industry, civil society, academia and tech community).

This session will discuss responsible behaviour in cyberspace. It will present and discuss the first results of the "Geneva Dialogue on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace" which is an initiative led by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) in cooperation with the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP), the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), ETH Zurich, and the University of Lausanne.
The goal is to have an interactive discussion with the participants about the findings/results of the Dialogue and receive inputs from the audience.

The intended Agenda is the following:
1. Opening Remarks and Introduction
2. The "Geneva Dialogue on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace": Reflections on the idea behind the dialog and presentation of its first results
3. Discussion: How to achieve greater stability and security in cyberspace through responsible behaviour?

The onsite moderator is very experienced and will lead and facilitate the discussion. He will ask the speakers relevant questions and encourage active audience participation. He will give each speaker the chance to make a short statement while letting enough time available to ask questions and let the audience intervene. Ideally, there will be an interactive discussion based on the statements made by the speakers.

While cyberspace and ICT can deliver significant benefits to society, the growing use of ICT by State and non-State actors for malicious purposes – threatening not only peace and security but also the entire digital society and economy – is of significant concern to the international community. Promoting the responsible behaviour of all actors is key to ensuring a peaceful, secure and stable cyberspace. To date, most efforts have focused predominantly on identifying norms of responsible State behaviour (for instance, the work of the UN General Assembly First Committee’s Groups of Governmental Experts (UNGGE)). These efforts have led to important results, even if greater awareness around the norms and their implementation is still required. There is also less clarity on the roles and responsibilities of other actors and how they, too, are contributing - or can contribute - to greater stability and security in cyberspace, as recommended in the GGE reports. This is due in part to the fact that discussions on cyberspace and international security often occur in institutional and thematic silos leaving little room to share views and broaden the discussion on responsible behaviour in cyberspace.
The Geneva Dialogue on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace aims to map the roles and responsibilities of states, industry and other key actors in contributing to greater security and stability in cyberspace; identify good practices and possible gaps in existing efforts; and provide additional insights on how different actors could contribute to greater stability and security in cyberspace.
The first results of the dialogue will be presented in this panel and discussed with participants.

This panel will continue the discussion that started in a previous panel at IGF 2017 in Geneva on the future scenarios for global cooperation in cyberspace. It extends the discussion further by looking closer at the roles and responsibilities of not only states but also industry actors and civil society, academic and tech communities in contributing to greater security and stability in cyberspace.

Online Participation

The online moderator will follow the online discussion closely, while in the room where the session takes place, and will give voice to the comments of the online participants in cooperation with the onsite moderator. The online moderator will summarise and read out the questions, greet and interact with online participants directly.