Turning to specific proposals under agenda item “Rules, norms and principles, Germany wishes to express its support for some of the proposals made by member states: We generally support the approach put forward by Canada to give guidance on the 2015 norms based on text which was discussed in the 2016-17 GGE and was widely seen as useful and noncontroversial. Even though the Canadian proposal did not make it into the non-paper, we hope it will be considered in the future work of the OEWG and in the drafting process. With regard to the specific language proposals listed in the non-paper we would like to emphasize that we believe that the focus of the work of the OEWG should be on promoting awareness and implementation of existing norms. We therefore see primarily room for upgrading and enhancing existing norms and not for introducing new norms. If this is taken into account, the thoughts expressed in the following contributions by OEWG member states are considered to be particularly useful by Germany: • • • • • States should pledge not to use ICTs and ICT networks to carry out activities which run counter to the task of maintaining international peace and security. States should be encouraged to take measures to prevent non-State actors, including the private sector, from conducting ICT activities for their own purposes or those of other nonState actors to the detriment of third parties including those located on another State’s territory. This aim could be achieved by working with the private sector to define permissible actions using a risk-based approach and to develop concrete tools - certification processes, bestpractices guides, response mechanisms to incidents and, as appropriate, national regulations. “State and non-state actors should neither conduct nor knowingly allow activity that intentionally and substantially damages the general availability or integrity of the public core of the Internet, and therefore the stability of cyberspace” [would be] guidance for implementation of UN GGE 2015 recommendation 13(f) and therefore bringing this also under the scope of UN GGE 2015 recommendation 13(g). “State and non-state actors must not pursue, support or allow cyberoperations intended to disrupt the technical infrastructure essential to elections, referenda or plebiscites,” [would be] guidance for implementation of UN GGE 2015 recommendation 13(f) and therefore bringing this also under the scope of UN GGE 2015 recommendation 13(g). Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.