UNIDIR Presents National Survey of Implementation Cosponsored by Australia and Canada

On the sidelines of the Second Substantiative Session of OEWG held between 28 March and 1 April 2022, the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), in cooperation with Australia and Mexico as well as several other UN member states, announced the launch of the National Survey of United Nations Recommendations on Responsible Use of ICT by States in the Context of International Security (Survey). The Survey, which will be launched on 1 May 2022 and will be hosted on UNIDIR’s Cyber Policy Portal, was presented during a hybrid side-event hosted at the Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations on 30 March. Its aim will be to provide a comprehensive platform for member states to self-assess the implementation of the recommendations from the 2015 GGE Report, as endorsed and elaborated by the 2021 OEWG and GGE Reports.  Chaired by Ms. Moliehi Makumane, Researcher for UNIDIR’s Security & Technology Programme, the event was an opportunity to hear more about the Survey and witness first-hand how this new tool will add value to the OEWG. H.E. Mitch Fifield, Australian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, reiterated Australia’s support for the Survey as one of the co-sponsors of the initative, and thanked UNIDIR for the development of this tool, Mexico for originally proposing its creation, as well as the other co-sponsors of the initative which include: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Indonesia, France, Kenya, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, South Africa and the Pacific Islands Forum. Ambassador Fifield stressed that the Survey will be key in helping UN member states share their expertise as well as assess their own implementation of the 11 agreed norms of responsible state behavior in cyberspace.

The Survey will be live on UNIDIR Cyber Policy Portal on 1 May 2022. A full recording of the side-event presentation which includes UNIDIR’s presentation by Dr. Giacomo Persi Paoli, Head of Program of UNIDIR Security & Technology, and Lenka Filipová, Associate Project Coordinator, UNIDIR Security & Technology Program; as well as statements by Isaac Morales, General Coordinator of Multidimensional Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico and Gaurav Keerthi, Deputy Chief Executive of Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA), can be found here,