COMMENTS FROM ITALY ON THE INITIAL ‘PRE-DRAFT’ REPORT OF THE OPEN-ENDED
WORKING GROUP ON DEVELOPMENTS IN THE FIELD OF INFORMATION AND
TELECOMMUNICATION IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Italy commends the work done by the OEWG Chair and its staff and thanks him for sharing his predraft report with Member States.
The document is an excellent basis: it will guide our work in the last part of the mandate. We
especially appreciate the efforts to accurately reflect the complexity of the discussions held so far and
present and collect concrete proposals for the work ahead of us.
The exercise of providing comments to the pre-draft report takes place in very difficult times. While
the world is struggling with combating the Covid-19 pandemic, UNSG Guterres has advocated for
an immediate global ceasefire of armed conflicts. In the digital domain, where open source reports
of malicious activities - targeting critical infrastructures such as health care institutions and facilities
- are increasing, we should uphold our commitment to promote stability and cooperation in
cyberspace. Maintaining and strengthening trust and security in the digital world during the current
global health emergency is imperative, as UN USG Fabrizio Hochschild stated, also considering that
cyber threats related to the pandemics pose further challenges to our States.
We fully align to the comments formulated by the EU and we would like to share some additional
remarks in our national capacity and in the form of general remarks, as requested.
The pre-draft reiterates what we consider as our “fundamentals”: the application of all existing
international law, including the UN Charter in its entirety, in cyberspace; the adherence to the rules,
norms and principles of responsible State behaviour established by the 2015 GGE, which Member
States have agreed to use as guidance in the use of ICTs by adopting res.70/237 without a vote; the
development of confidence building measures and capacity building programs.
A. General remarks and introduction
Italy deems it useful to clearly remind throughout the document that the OEWG mandate is focused
on developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international
security and that the Group will be acting on a consensus basis, as it appears in Res. 73/27.
We anticipate that, during the course of negotiations, it might become necessary to set a standard to
accept references to documents in the report, i.e. resolutions adopted (and in case there has been a
vote with a clear indication of it), treaties, reports by official organs or committees, and ask
delegations to comply with such indications.
Italy would like to see the role of other stakeholders more evenly reflected in the report, either by
dedicating a specific section in the introduction and in the recommendations, with highlights of both
contributions and need for further cooperation for each group of stakeholders (private sector, NGOs,
academia and scientists) or by allowing a dedicated paragraph in each thematic section of the report,
or both. With regards to private sector, several delegations have singled out the small and medium
enterprises that are a source of concern as they are particularly vulnerable while representing the
majority of the world’s businesses. Finally, we think that the OEWG report should mention and annex
the report of the Informal intersessional consultative meeting of the OEWG with industry, nongovernmental organizations and academia (2-4 December 2019).
B. Existing and potential threats
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