Open-ended Working Group

Through resolution 73/27, the General Assembly established an Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG), in which all UN Member States are invited to participate. The Group will convene for the first time in 2019 and report back to the General Assembly in 2020. The OEWG process also provides the possibility of holding intersessional consultative meetings with industry, non-governmental organizations and academia.

Ambassador Jürg Lauber of Switzerland was elected by acclamation to Chair the Open-ended Working Group.

On 12 March 2021, the Open-ended Working Group adopted the following:

  1. Final OEWG report 
  2. Chair’s Summary (reissued for technical reasons)
  3. Updated procedural report 

Compendium of statements in explanation of position on the final report (25 March 2021)

Addendum 1 

Addendum 2 

Chair’s letter (circulated on 11 March)
Letter of the Chair on preparations for the adoption of the OEWG report

Chair’s letter, Final OEWG report and Chair’s summary (10 March 2021)

  1. Letter of the Chair on the Final Draft
  2. Final OEWG report
  3. Chair’s Summary

Letter of the Chair and “First Draft” of the OEWG substantive report (1 March 2021)

  1. Letter of the Chair on the First Draft
  2. First Draft of the OEWG report
  3. Updated non-paper (Rules, Norms and Principles)

Preparations for the third session of the OEWG (8-12 March 2021)

  1. Letter of the Chair (25 February 2021)
  2. Organizational note (25 February 2021)
  3. Draft Programme of Work (10 February 2021)
  4. Risk assessment by OSH (3 October 2020)

Zero Draft of the OEWG substantive report (19 Jan 2021)

  1. OEWG Chair’s letter on the Zero Draft
  2. Zero Draft of the OEWG substantive report
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  3. Non-paper (Rules, Norms and Principles)
  4. Draft OEWG procedural report
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Joint Proposals by Member States 

Statements / contributions by Member States on the Zero and First (1st) draft

Informal multi-stakeholder consultations (25 February 2021)
Outcome report

Contributions by Inter-governmental Organizations (IGOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) 

Documents of the fourth round of informal meetings of the OEWG (1-3 December 2020)

  1. OEWG Chair’s letter on the fourth round of informal meetings (19 November 2020)
  2. Draft Programme of Work of the fourth round of informal meetings (19 November 2020)

Documents of the third round of informal meetings of the OEWG (17 – 19 November 2020)

  1. OEWG Chair’s letter on the third round of informal meetings (26 October 2020)
  2. Draft Programme of Work of the third round of informal meetings (26 October 2020)

Documents of the second round of informal meetings of the OEWG (29 September – 1 October 2020)

  1. OEWG Chair’s letter on the second round of informal meetings (2 September 2020)
  2. Draft Programme of Work of the second round of informal meetings (2 September 2020)

Chair’s letter on the new roadmap for the work of the OEWG (16 July 2020)

Documents of the first round of informal meetings of the OEWG (15 June – 19 June 2020)

  1. OEWG Chair’s letter on informal virtual meetings (27 May 2020)
  2. OEWG Chair’s Draft PoW for the informal virtual meetings (27 May 2020)
  3. Revised pre-draft of the OEWG report (27 May 2020)
  4. Revised non-paper (27 May 2020)

Statements / contributions delivered by Member States

Informal Multi-stakeholder Cyber Dialogue (4-10 December 2020) 
Summary report

Chair’s letter with draft decision for the postponement of the third substantive session of the OEWG (9 June 2020)

Chair’s letter on extending the mandate of the OEWG (5 June 2020)

Chair’s letter and initial pre-draft of the OEWG report (27 April 2020)

  1. OEWG Chair’s letter of 27 April 2020
  2. OEWG Chair’s letter of 1 April 2020 – Extension of the deadline for written submissions to 16 April
  3. OEWG Chair’s letter of 16 March 2020 – Update on intersessional consultations and request for written submissions to the OEWG Pre-draft by 3 April
  4. OEWG Chair’s letter of 11 March 2020
  5. Initial Pre-draft of the OEWG report
  6. Non-paper

Comments by Member States on the initial pre-draft of the OEWG report

Comments by Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs) on the pre-draft of the OEWG report

Comments by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) on the pre-draft of the OEWG report

Documents of the Organizational Session of the OEWG (3-4 June 2019)

– Provisional agenda ( A/AC.290/2019/1 )

– Note by the secretariat on the organization of work of the OEWG

Documents of the first substantive session of the OEWG (9-13 September 2019)

– Note by the secretariat on the organization of work of the first substantive session

– OEWG Chair’s letter to Member States on the First Substantive Session

– Updated list of speakers

Documents of the informal intersessional consultative meeting of the OEWG with industry, non-governmental organizations and academia (2-4 December 2019)

Informal multi-stakeholder meeting (2-4 December 2019)

Documents of the second substantive session of the OEWG (10-14 February 2020)

The official statements of the OEWG meetings are available on PaperSmart.

Statements by Non-Governmental Organizations during the informal multi-stakeholder segment (12 February 2020)

Working Papers submitted by Member States

 Informal Papers submitted by Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs)

– Position paper of the International Committee of the Red Cross on International Humanitarian Law and Cyber Operations during Armed Conflicts

– Position paper by the Secretariat of the Internet Governance Forum

Informal papers submitted by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

– ICT4Peace Foundation Submission to UN Negotiations on Cybersecurity (OEWG) in New York (9 – 13 September 2019)

–  ICT4Peace Foundation  Submission: “States Cyber Peer Review Mechanism”

–  ICT4Peace Foundation Submission: “Critical Infrastructure and Offensive Cyber Operations: A Call to Governments”

– Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) Submission to the members of the OEWG: Advancing Cyberstability – Final Report (November 2019)

–  Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Association for Progressive Communications Submission: “Why Gender Matters in International Cyber Security”

NGO accreditation

– To find out more about NGO accreditation to attend the second substantive session of the Open-ended Working Group, click here.

– Note Verbale by the secretariat regarding technical extension of review period NGO accreditation

– Note Verbale  by the secretariat regarding the outcome of non-objection procedure for attendance of NGOs at the Open-ended Working Group meeting (9-13 September 2019)

– Note Verbale by the secretariat regarding the accreditation of NGOs at the second substantive session of the Open-ended Working Group (10-14 February 2020)

Schedule of meetings

  1.  Organizational session – New York, 3-4 June 2019 (CR4)
  2.  First substantive session – New York, 9-13 September 2019 (CR4) 
  3.  Intersessional meeting with Industry Partners and NGOs – New York, 2-4 Dec 2019 (CR1)
  4.  Second substantive session – New York, 10-14 February 2020 2020 
  5.  Third (and final) substantive session – New York, 8-12 March 2021

Please check this page for updates.

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