I remember when Russia would pretty much start every #UNcyberOEWG & AHC on Cybercrime criticizing USA for not meeting its UN HQ host obligations by refusing to issue delegates visas. Now that more countries are in USA's crosshairs, maybe it's time to move more meetings to the UN's non-US locations?
View of the plaza in front of the UN headquarters in New York
Neuer Gastbeitrag📝Cyberdiplomatie bei den Vereinten Nationen: Was Deutschland jetzt tun sollte
Die #UNcyberOEWG hat beschlossen, den 1. permanenten VN-Cybersicherheitsdialog zu etablieren.
tl;dr: Die Modalitäten sind not great, aber die deutsche Diplomatie kann an einigen Stellschrauben drehen./1
5 years after it was established, the UN Open-Ended Working Group on cyber issues has concluded by adopting a consensus report. Congrats to all the negotiators & stakeholders who participated in the #UNCyberOEWG, including IST's international partners and colleagues!
🛡️ Read the consensus report:
#UNcyberOEWG: Australia announces that in partnership with the WG's secretariat, they've crunched the stats on rise in gender parity in interventions since the WG began:
- ~33% of interventions were made by women when OEWG began
- 55% in February WG session
- 53% in this week's session
The willingness to immediately forget all areas of disagreement at #UNcyberOEWG is kind of like giving birth: the endorphins released on seeing the tiny little screaming infant mean that the hours of trauma & pain of pushing out the baby are immediately wiped from memory.
#UNcyberOEWG has basically entered the "We are going to ignore all the disagreements & tensions of the past few years & instead congratulate each other on how wonderfully we worked together to develop this fantastic outcome" phase that inevitably happens before meetings like this come to a close.
#UNcyberOEWG delegates have 3 weeks from today to submit any written national statements regarding the final report just adopted or they can ask for the floor now.
Pacific Island States are first to take the floor, thanking Chair & his team for all their hard work. The room applauds in agreement.
#UNcyberOEWG Chair: with no more requests for the floor, moves to formal adoption of the draft final report of the WG. No objections in the room. Chair gavels report into adoption. Loud applause & whooping breaks out across the room! Chair calls it "applause of collective relief". Laughter in room.
#UNcyberOEWG: The Arab Group, represented by Tunisia, is third to take the floor, & joins consensus on Conference Room Paper, while also expressing some reservations, inc. on how international law is handled in the final report.
#UNcyberOEWG: India is first to ask for the floor, noting that while it had hoped for more out of the report, in the spirit of consensus, supports the Conference Room Paper presented by the Chair. Vanuatu is 2nd to speak & also supports the CRP.
#UNcyberOEWG Chair: doesn't plan to open the text of Conference Room Paper version of final report for significant edit requests by delegates, as any request by one Member State is likely to open the text up to a countering request by delegates of an opposite view.
#UNcyberOEWG Chair describes "a very finely balanced package" of elements aimed at crossing the finish line. Chair says he's walked a very fine line, almost a tightrope, in putting doc together. Very few changes made since rev. 2. as any significant changes would have disrupted overall balance.
The #UNcyberOEWG Chair has just entered. Delegates are sitting down. The final day is underway at last.
#UNcyberOEWG was due to start at 10 am to adopt the WG's final ever report, but at 10:30 am, people are still milling about in the room, with the Chair nowhere to be seen, which indicates there's possibly last minute discussion happening on the sidelines with one or more still-unhappy Member State.
The Conference Room Paper final version of the #UNcyberOEWG final report is now available & will be presented for adoption by UN Member States at 10 am Friday, New York time.
#UNcyberOEWG Chair: after today's discussions on rev. 2 of the draft final report, intends to put forward the Conference Room Paper (CRP) version of the group's final report for adoption tomorrow morning, and go from there.
Image of leather chairs at UN headquarters coming apart thanks to lack of funds to fix them.
#UNcyberOEWG Chair: thanks to UN financial austerity measures, this WG cannot go beyond 6 pm Friday.
(Note: I'm attaching a screenshot from yesterday's discussions, where you can see the chairs in UN headquarters are literally falling apart because there have long been lack of funds to fix them)
#UNcyberOEWG Chair: this final report of the WG is the beginning of a whole new process. So any disappointment that delegates feel that this report doesn't meet all their goals, look toward the next step, with the future permanent mechanism after this WG.
#UNcyberOEWG Chair: asks delegates to consider the final report as part of overall package of annual reports the WG has produced. Acknowledges many will be disappointed the report doesn't go far enough. Chair wishes the process could have gone further, too, but for sake of balance, must be pragmatic
#UNcyberOEWG Chair: Rev. 2 of the draft final report streamlines the report down from from 45 to 28 pages. And attempts to capture as many ideas expressed by States as possible, as factually as possible, without any prejudice towards or against any particular State's view.
#UNcyberOEWG Chair: apologizes that the draft final report went out later than planned last night & hopes people didn't lose too much sleep waiting for it.
And the #UNcyberOEWG Chair has just turned up.
This morning, the #UNcyberOEWG Chair is due to present Rev 2 of the group's draft final report, but 25 minutes past the scheduled starting time, there's no sign of him in the room. Being bailed up in a corridor by a Member State unhappy that their views aren't fully reflected in the draft, perhaps?
The #UNcyberOEWG Chair's Rev. 2 draft of the group's final ever report, before a new mechanism takes over, is out and will be presented in New York at 11 am this morning.
#UNcyberOEWG Chair plans to get rev. 2 of the draft final report out by around 9 pm New York time tonight. To give delegates some time to review it, meeting won't start until 11 am tomorrow. Formal conference room paper by end of tomorrow, to allow consultations with capital overnight.
#UNcyberOEWG in ends for today. Due to the UN financial crisis, it has no room & interpretation for afternoon. All UN meetings are having their time & resource allocations cut thanks to Member States not paying their annual dues on time or in full.
Russia is having trouble again accessing the UN Web TV stream of the #UNcyberOEWG discussions. Secretariat asked to investigate this for the second time for this week.
#UNcyberOEWG stakeholder speaking session has ended after about an hour. There were 20 stakeholders to speak (if my list is correct!) and they had 3 minutes each before the microphone was automatically turned off.
Elvis has entered the (UN) building thanks to an intervention by the German Council on Foreign Relations at the #UNCyberOEWG
#UNcyberOEWG Day 3 is just beginning in New York, and this morning, it's the turn of non-government stakeholders to speak.
