A/75/123 improving our citizens’ quality of life. Nonetheless, our dependence on digital solutions also creates certain challenges. Denmark is concerned by the rise of malicious activities in cyberspace by State and non-State actors, as well as the use of cyberspace to infringe on intellectual property. Such actions threaten economic growth and the stability of the international community. Never before has the need for an open, secure, stable, accessible and peaceful cyberspace been more evident than during the coronavirus disease (COVID -19) pandemic. Information and communications technologies (ICTs) enable the communication, collaboration and knowledge-sharing that the world needs in order to manage the pandemic. Nonetheless, during the current COVID-19 crisis, we have witnessed that malicious actors will take advantage of any opportunity – even a global pandemic. This includes interfering with critical infrastructure, including hospitals essential in combating the pandemic. This is unacceptable and must be strongly condemned by all States. Moreover, States must exercise due diligence and take swift and firm action against malicious ICT activity originating from their territories. How international law applies to the use of information and communications technologies Denmark strongly supports a multilateral system based on the rules -based international order to deal with the existing and potential threats stemming from the malicious use of ICTs. The international community has made it clear that cyberspace is firmly rooted in existing international law, as the Groups of Governmental Experts also attest in their 2013 and 2015 consensus reports. Denmark emphasizes that existing international law, including the Charter of the United Nations in its entirety, international humanitarian law and international human rights law, applies to States’ behaviour in cyberspace. Sovereignty, non-intervention and the prohibition of the use of force are fundamental principles of international law, and States’ violation thereof will constitute an internationally wrongful act, for which States may conduct countermeasures and seek reparation under the rules of State responsibility. There is still room for strengthening the common understanding and interpretation of these fundamental principles, and Denmark supports the work of the Group of Governmental Experts and the Open-ended Working Group on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security – and other international and regional initiatives – in pursuing this outcome. Importantly, the principle of sovereignty should not be used by States to limit or violate international human rights law within its own borders. Human rights l aw is applicable online, as well as offline, and entails both a negative and a positive obligation for States to respectively refrain from acts that violate human rights and a duty to ensure that people can exercise their rights and freedoms. As described in the “Danish military manual”, cyberspace operations do not differ from the use of conventional military capacities in relation to applicable international law. The issue is also reflected in the national Joint Doctrine for Military Cyberspace Operations of 2019, in which military leaders are guided to inclu de considerations on compliance with international law when conducting cyberspace operations. Thus, international humanitarian law, including the principles of precaution, humanity, military necessity, proportionality and distinction, applies to State conduct in cyberspace and is wholly protective, by setting clear boundaries for 20-08285 29/84