Initial “Pre-draft” of the report of the OEWG on developments in the field of information and
telecommunications in the context of international security
And
Non-paper listing specific language proposals under agenda item “Rules, norms and principles”
from written submissions received before 2 March 2020
COMMENTS FROM GERMANY
April 6, 2020
Excellency,
Thank you very much for your letters of March 11 and 16. Germany welcomes the Initial “Pre-draft”
of the report of the OEWG on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the
context of international security (“pre-draft”). We welcome in particular that the pre-draft is based
on previous GGE reports and takes into account the work achieved in these groups. Germany is
committed to engaging at the OEWG in further discussions and generally speaking supports the predraft.
We would like to comment, however – on the following issues and paragraphs:
•
Germany appreciates the efforts by the Chair to reflect the broad and cross-cutting
discussion of the OEWG in the pre-draft, and recognizes the clear commitment shown by the
Chair within the text in representing the debates in an objective manner. From time to time,
however, some suggestions from States are inadvertently described in such a manner that
they appear to have received the support of the broad membership even if this was not the
case. We suggest to carefully look again through the text in this regard.
•
In particular in paragraph 61, the phrasing “States recognized the need” seems to suggest a
consensus was recognized by the group as a whole on this topic. Germany suggests instead
striking this sentence, or amending it as follows: “some States recognized the need.”
•
Turning to section C on international law, Germany would like to take this opportunity to
reiterate its support for the positions expressed in Paragraph 26 that, “existing international
law, complemented by the voluntary, non-binding norms that reflect consensus among
States, is currently sufficient for addressing State use of ICTs,” and that, “efforts should
therefore be directed to reaching common understanding on how the already agreed
normative framework applies and can be operationalized.”
•
To avoid misunderstandings, it might be useful to underline in this section the binding
character of international law.