OEWG Agrees on Modalities for Multistakeholder Participation After Silent Procedure 

After almost a year since the first Organizational Session of the Open-Ended Working Group on Developments in the Field of ICTs in the Context of International Security 2021-2025 (OEWG), on 22 April 2022, Ambassador Burhan Gafoor, Permanent Representative of Singapore to the United Nations and Chair of the OEWG, announced in a letter that an agreement had been reached on modalities for multistakeholder participation. In his letter the Chair thanked all delegations for their “active and constructive participation” and for demonstrating “flexibility in the spirit of consensus.”  Below you can find more information on how to register your organization to the participate in the next session of the OEWG.

The agreed modalities for the participation of stakeholders in the OEWG 2021-2025 will include:

  • A commitment for Member States to engage with stakeholders in a systematic, sustained, and substantive manner.
  • The ability for relevant non-governmental organizations with ECOSOC status to participate in the work of the OEWG, as well as the ability of other interested non-governmental organizations to participate on a non-objection basis as observers.

Accredited stakeholders will be able to attend formal meetings of the OEWG, make oral statements during a dedicated stakeholder session, and submit written inputs to be posted on the webpage of the OEWG. The agreed modalities further encourage Member States to utilize the non-objection mechanism judiciously, “bearing in mind the spirit of inclusivity”. Where there is an objection to a non-governmental organization, the objecting Member State is encouraged to make known its objection to the Chair and, on a voluntary basis, make known to the Chair of the OEWG the general basis of its objections.

The Chair has also confirmed that the OEWG will continue to organize informal consultative meetings with stakeholders during the inter-sessional period, allowing for a wider range of non-accredited organizations to also provide input. The agreed modalities will be adopted at the Third Substantive Session of the OEWG, which will be held between 25-29 July 2022. All updated information can be found on UNODA’s Meeting platform here.