15 April 2020
UM2019/32655/NEWR
Sweden’s comments on the Initial “Pre-draft” of the report of the
UN Open Ended Working Group
We thank Ambassador Lauber and the Secretariat for the Initial Pre-Draft of
the OEWG report. Our initial and non-exhaustive general comments and
feedback as follows:
Introduction/general
• The COVID-19 crisis underlines our dependence on secure digital
communications and networks, and the shared responsibilities of
states in this regard. Open source reports indicate an increase in
malicious cyber activities. The report of the OEWG could give
additional weight to respect for norms, confidence building measures
and capacity building during periods of global crisis and preparedness
to handle possible future crises.
• While the focus of the OEWG is and should be responsible state
behaviour, the report must also reflect the fundamental fact that
security in the digital era is a joint and multi-layer effort where states,
civil societies, enterprises and individuals are all exposed and
dependent on cooperation. We underline the importance of nongovernmental stakeholders, from industry to civil society, including
human rights defenders. We welcome references within the report on
the engagement with stakeholders. The importance of multistakeholder involvement (and feed-back from the session held in
December 2019) could be given even further emphasis in the report,
including regarding Regular Institutional Dialogue and Conclusions
and Recommendations.