On 7 March in New York, the Geneva Dialogue organised the side-event during the 7th substantive session of the UN Open-ended working group (OEWG). The event was co-sponsored by Switzerland, Canada, Chile, the Netherlands, and DiploFoundation, and gathered around 40 experts representing governments and non-state stakeholders.
Ambassador Adrian Hauri, Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN welcomed participants, highlighting Switzerland’s commitment to a secure, free, and open cyberspace, in line with international law, human rights, and international humanitarian law.
Vladimir Radunović, Director of E-diplomacy and Cybersecurity Programmes at Diplo provided a comprehensive overview of the first chapter of the Geneva Manual on Responsible Behaviour in Cyberspace, launched in December 2023.
Participants, including industry representatives and diplomats discussed how existing cyber norms assist each of us – representatives of various stakeholder groups and organisations – in promoting responsible behaviour in cyberspace, and what possible roles and responsibilities stakeholders shall implement to minimise security risks while producing digital products or when using them. An interactive tabletop exercise, based on the roles in the Geneva Manual, was organised after to discuss challenges related to responsible vulnerability disclosure and relevant roles and responsibilities of stakeholders to ensure the security of digital products and services.
The event underlined the need to translate cyber norms into actionable practices and the importance of capacity building. It was also announced that in 2024 the Geneva Dialogue will start a new phase discussing the norms and confidence-building measures (CBMs) related to critical infrastructure protection (CIP).
