The Kingdom of the Netherlands’ response to the pre-draft report of the OEWG
1.
The Netherlands would like to commend the work that has been done by the Chair and the support
team in the past weeks. The Netherlands hopes that the Chair, the support team and all other Delegates
remain in good health. We welcome the opportunity to comment on the pre-draft report of the Open Ended
Working Group on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of
international security (OEWG). We believe that this first pre-draft is a good basis to start discussions on the
report to be adopted by consensus in the last session of the OEWG. There are areas however, where we
believe the pre-draft can be improved and we would like to make use of this opportunity to share our
suggestions for further improvement, in addition to the comments made by the EU.
General comments
2.
The Netherlands is appalled by the abuse of the COVID-19 crisis by States to conduct or effectively
control non-state actors in launching cyber operations, including the disruption of the healthcare sector, and
cyber enabled information operations to interfere with the crisis response in times of urgent crisis. Not only
are these operations highly deplorable examples of irresponsible state behaviour; in many instances, they
constitute violations of international law.
3.
These examples demonstrate once again the urgent need for the international community to address the use
of ICT’s in the context of international peace and security, in particular to ensure implementation of and
adherence to international law and the framework established by the consecutive GGE reports.
4.
The Netherlands welcomes in that light the work done thus far by the OEWG as working group of the
First Committee. We would like to reiterate that the OEWG should focus on the use of ICT’s in the context
of international peace and security, in particular on responsible State behaviour.
5.
The Netherlands welcomed the initiative of the drafter and co-sponsors of the resolution creating the
OEWG to facilitate multistakeholder participation. The introduction of the pre-draft report rightfully
reflects this important step. However, the introduction should also reflect that this promise could not be
fulfilled due to the opposition of some states to allow for this greater multistakeholder participation. This
point has been raised several times during the substantive discussions that took place in September and
February and for some member states vetoing the participation of non-ECOSOC accredited actors was
contrary to the aim for this working group to be inclusive and transparent.
6.
The Netherlands underlines the importance for discussions on responsible state behaviour to take place in
the context of the United Nations. However, we believe that there are other important fora outside of the
UN that discuss and work on cybersecurity, norms, confidence building measures, capacity building. These
include platforms for states, regional fora but also multistakeholder platforms. The Netherlands believes
that the OEWG should acknowledge the role played by other fora in this field and its specific place in this
ecosystem.
7.
The Netherlands welcomes the references to the gender perspective in the entire document but would like
to see it more incorporated throughout the report. The Netherlands believes that the focus on gender can be
improved and recommends seeking to address the gender dimension in all aspects of the report.
8.
A final general comment that the Netherlands would like to make is related to the reference to states in
the current pre-draft. As it currently stands there is no qualifier appearing in front of references to states.
We believe this can be misleading and could be perceived as if positions and arguments were shared by all
member states. We therefore suggest to add qualifiers such as “for some member states”, “certain member
states”; “several states”, etc. in order to better reflect the discussions that took place.
Threats
9.
In the COVID-19 crisis, the devastating potential of malicious cyber operations is demonstrated. The fact
that some State and non-state actors abuse the crisis to launch cyber operations, including against the health
sector, or conduct cyber-enabled information operations to interfere with the crisis response should be an
urgent concern for the international community.
10. The Netherlands would like to once again underline the fact that those threats against international peace
and security through the use of ICTs emanate from States participating in the OEWG. Existing international