Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security

A/RES/73/27No PDF available

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 96Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security, published in 2018.

What other versions does this mandate have?

24 versions · 1999–2023

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/78/237

2023A/RES/78/237Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international securityLatestCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/77/36Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international securityCompare with previous version
2021A/RES/75/240Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international securityCompare with previous version
2019A/RES/74/29Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international securityCompare with previous version
2018A/RES/73/27Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international securityCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 topics

Data Protection Information Systems Information Technology International Security Principles Telecommunications Working Groups

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2019.

2019A/74/120Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

11 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the following set of international rules, norms and principles of responsible behaviour of States, enshrined in the reports of the Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security of 20133 and 20152 adopted by consensus and recommended in resolution 71/28 entitled “Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security”, adopted by the General Assembly on 5 December 2016:

1.1. Consistent with the purposes of the United Nations, including to maintain international peace and security, States should cooperate in developing and applying measures to increase stability and security in the use of ICTs and to prevent ICT practices that are acknowledged to be harmful or that may pose threats to international peace and security.

1.2. States must meet their international obligations regarding internationally wrongful acts attributable to them under international law. However, the indication that an ICT activity was launched or otherwise originates from the territory or objects of the ICT infrastructure of a State may be insufficient in itself to attribute the activity to that State. Accusations of organizing and implementing wrongful acts brought against States should be substantiated. In case of ICT incidents, States should consider all relevant information, including the larger context of the event, the challenges of attribution in the ICT environment and the nature and extent of the consequences.

1.3. States should not knowingly allow their territory to be used for internationally wrongful acts using ICTs. States must not use proxies to commit internationally wrongful acts using ICTs and should seek to ensure that their territory is not used by non-State actors to commit such acts.

1.4. States should consider how best to cooperate to exchange information, assist each other, prosecute terrorist and criminal use of ICTs and implement other cooperative measures to address such threats. States may need to consider whether new measures need to be developed in this respect.

1.5. States, in ensuring the secure use of ICTs, should respect Human Rights Council resolutions 20/8 of 5 July 2012 and 26/13 of 26 June 2014 on the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet, as well as General Assembly resolutions 68/167 of 18 December 2013 and 69/166 of 18 December 2014 on the right to privacy in the digital age, to guarantee full respect for human rights, including the right to freedom of expression.

1.6. A State should not conduct or knowingly support ICT activity contrary to its obligations under international law that intentionally damages critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use and operation of critical infrastructure to provide services to the public.

1.7. States should take appropriate measures to protect their critical infrastructure from ICT threats, taking into account General Assembly resolution 58/199 of 23 December 2003 on the creation of a global culture of cybersecurity and the protection of critical information infrastructures, and other relevant resolutions.

1.8. States should respond to appropriate requests for assistance by another State whose critical infrastructure is subject to malicious ICT acts. States should also respond to appropriate requests to mitigate malicious ICT activity aimed at the critical infrastructure of another State emanating from their territory, taking into account due regard for sovereignty.

1.9. States should take reasonable steps to ensure the integrity of the supply chain so that end users can have confidence in the security of ICT products.

1.10. States should seek to prevent the proliferation of malicious ICT tools and techniques and the use of harmful hidden functions.

1.11. States should encourage responsible reporting of ICT vulnerabilities and share associated information on available remedies for such vulnerabilities to limit and possibly eliminate potential threats to ICTs and ICT-dependent infrastructure.

1.12. States should not conduct or knowingly support activity to harm the information systems of the authorized emergency response teams (sometimes known as computer emergency response teams or cybersecurity incident response teams) of another State. A State should not use authorized emergency response teams to engage in malicious international activity.

1.13. States should encourage the private sector and civil society to play an appropriate role to improve security of and in the use of ICTs, including supply chain security for ICT products and services. States should cooperate with the private sector and the organizations of civil society in the sphere of implementation of rules of responsible behaviour in information space with regard to their potential role;

Calls upon Member States to promote further, at multilateral levels, the consideration of existing and potential threats in the field of information security, as well as possible strategies to address the threats emerging in this field, consistent with the need to preserve the free flow of information;

Considers that the purpose of such measures could be served through further examination of relevant international concepts aimed at strengthening the security of global information and telecommunications systems;

Invites all Member States, taking into account the assessments and recommendations contained in the reports of the Group of Governmental Experts on Developments in the Field of Information and Telecommunications in the Context of International Security,1 to continue to inform the Secretary-General of their views and assessments on the following questions:

General appreciation of the issues of information security;

Efforts taken at the national level to strengthen information security and promote international cooperation in this field;

The content of the concepts mentioned in paragraph 3 above;

Possible measures that could be taken by the international community to strengthen information security at the global level;

Decides to convene, beginning in 2019, with a view to making the United Nations negotiation process on security in the use of information and communications technologies more democratic, inclusive and transparent, an open-ended working group acting on a consensus basis, to continue, as a priority, to further develop the rules, norms and principles of responsible behaviour of States listed in paragraph 1 above, and the ways for their implementation; if necessary, to introduce changes to them or elaborate additional rules of behaviour; to study the possibility of establishing regular institutional dialogue with broad participation under the auspices of the United Nations; and to continue to study, with a view to promoting common understandings, existing and potential threats in the sphere of information security and possible cooperative measures to address them and how international law applies to the use of information and communications technologies by States, as well as confidence-building measures and capacity-building and the concepts referred to in paragraph 3 above, and to submit a report on the results of the study to the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session, and to provide the possibility of holding, from within voluntary contributions, intersessional consultative meetings with the interested parties, namely business, non-governmental organizations and academia, to share views on the issues within the group’s mandate;

Also decides that the open-ended working group shall hold its organizational session in June 2019 in order to agree on the organizational arrangements connected with the group;

Further decides to include in the provisional agenda of its seventy-fourth session the item entitled “Developments in the field of information and telecommunications in the context of international security”.

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