Seeking to contribute to the international dialogue on norms for responsible behavior in cyberspace, ICT4Peace, with the support of the Dutch Government, organized a series of workshops and research notes in preparation of a High-Level Panel at the  Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS), The Hague, Netherlands on 17 April 2015.

Using a bottom-up approach to the development of international norms, the results of the research and panel discussion suggests that the discussion of norms ought to be built on a shared understanding of ‘normal’, deriving from practices States seem to be adopting or following when operating in cyberspace. To complement expert work on treaty interpretation and searches for international customary law on cyber security, it was confirmed by this investigation, that it will be necessary to work on additional ways to progressively develop commonly accepted norms of responsible State behavior in cyberspace.

For this purpose, under the leadership of Dr. Eneken Tikk, Senior Advisor, ICT4Peace, the following Comprehensive Normative Approach to Cybersecurity was developed and endorsed by the experts participating in the ICT4Peace panel on norms at GCCS 2015.

In preparation of the panel a series of workshops were carried out and research papers were prepared, which can be found here.

The Experts participating in the panel discussion were:

Introduction:

Dr. Daniel Stauffacher, President ICT4Peace

Moderator:

Dr Eneken Tikk-Ringas, IISS/ICT4Peace

Panellists:

  • Mr Zahid Jamil, Chair, Developing Countries’ Centre on Cyber Crime (DC4)
  • Mr Uchenna Jerome Orji LLM, attorney and lecturer in cyber law (Nigeria)
  • Ms Liisi Adamson, student/youth representative, Tartu University Faculty of Law (Estonia)
  • Dr Nils Melzer, Senior Advisor, Security Policy Division, Political Directorate, Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (former ICRC) (Switzerland)
  • Dr Mika Kerttunen, Cyber Policy Institute, Finland
  • Jan Neutze, Director Cybersecurity Policy, Microsoft, Germany
  • Professor Paul Cornish, RAND Europe, Research Group Director, United Kingdom
  • Mr Alexander Radovitskiy, Aide to the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on international cooperation in the field of information security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation