Updates on using tech for peacebuilding & peacekeeping

(from right to left) Marc Porret (UNCTED), Ms. Monika Binkert (Facebook), Daniel Stauffacher (ICT4Peace

Foundation)

UN and ICT4Peace launch project to counter use of ICTsfor terrorist purposes in cooperation with the privatesectorSince the late 1990s, terrorist groups have become more sophisticated in their use of theinternet and ICT. In the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, extremist groups came underincreasing pressure to go underground, finding in the internet an ideal channel through which itcould continue communications while reaching out to a larger audience, and as a means to seekfinance for its activities.

Confronted with the growing threat posed by the Islamic State (IS), concerns regarding terroristuse of ICT and the internet further increased, due in large part to IS’ adeptness in using thetechnologies and related platforms to groom and recruit foreign fighters and supporters, produceand disseminate propaganda. Such concerns were tabled in the UN Security Council, whichurges UN Member States to act cooperatively when taking national measures to preventterrorists from exploiting technology, communications and resources, including audio and video,to incite support for terrorist acts, while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms andin compliance with other obligations under international law. Security Council activity on thesematters has increased even further since the Paris attacks of November 2015.

These developments have important implications for the private sector, in particular thosecompanies whose products and services are exploited to advance the goals of terrorist actors.This reality has led to greater engagement by states of the private sector in efforts to combat

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terrorist use of ICTs, including the creation of public-private partnerships specifically aimed atdealing with the issue. It has also led to the emergence of new practices or norms of self-regulation by companies. New norms and coercive measures such as sanctions aimed atpreventing the sale, distribution and use of IT products and services to terrorist groups also bringwith them new obligations, with obvious implications for industry.

The cooperation of UN CTED and ICT4Peace has been to deepen the understanding of thesedevelopments, particularly how industry is responding to terrorist use of ICTs, identify goodpractices, notably in the area of self- regulation, and potentially engage industry representativesin shaping a voluntary trust building mechanism such as a code of conduct to help mitigate theuse of ICT products and services by terrorist groups. The first meeting to discuss potentialcooperation between Governments and Private Sectors was held on 16 and 17 December 2015at the UN in New York, was organised by the UN CTED in cooperation with and moderated byICT4Peace (see post here).

African UnionCommission andICT4Peace co-organizedCapacity Building forInternational CyberSecurity Negotiations atthe AU in Addis Ababa,EthiopiaAs part of its Capacity Building Programfor International Cyber SecurityNegotiations, ICT4Peace organised incooperation with the African UnionCommission the first cybersecurity policyand diplomacy workshop at The AfricanUnion Headquarters in Addis Ababa on 15and 16 February 2016.

Read more here.

Countering ViolentExtremism & MobileAdvocacy in MyanmarSanjana Hattotuwa, Special Advisor atthe ICT4Peace Foundation, was invitedto take part in Tech Camp 2016, held atPhandeeyar, where he talked about andtrained on mobile advocacy and activismstrategies. Calling on the workengineered in Sri Lanka around electionmonitoring, civil society mobilisation,voter education and civic media,Sanjana talked about how mobiles wereused to bear witness to violence,promote democratic debate, dissent andalso foster interest in voting.

Read more here.

Political andHumanitarian Crisis inBurundi: Launch of

ETH Professor (em.) KurtR. Spillmann joinsICT4Peace InternationalAdvisory BoardThe ICT4Peace Foundation is deeplyhonoured, that former ETH ProfessorKurt R. Spillmann has kindly agreed tojoin its International Advisory Board.Professor Spillmann is a world renownedand eminent scholar and internationallysolicited political commentator on worldaffairs, in particular on peace andsecurity.

Read more here.

UN General Assembly’sWorld Summit on theInformation Society(WSIS+10) Review failsto address the need forpeace in cyberspaceOn December 16, 2015 the UN GeneralAssembly issued an outcome documentfor its review of implementation of theWorld Summit on the Information Society(WSIS). WSIS, which was theinternational community’s initial effort

ICT4Peace WikiThe ICT4Peace Foundation is pleased topublicly release its new wiki on the crisisin Burundi.

Curated by Sanjana Hattotuwa, SpecialAdvisor at the Foundation, the wiki ismeant to alert and raise awareness onthe ongoing tragic political andhumanitarian crisis in Burundi andprovide timely, meaningful and urgentlyneeded information forpolihttp://ict4peace.org/?p=4061cy anddecision makers as well as practitionersfrom Governments, InternationalOrganisations, civil society, business andmedia.

Read more here.

ICT4Peace moderatingUN Session onPreventing Terroristsfrom Exploiting theInternet and SocialMedia

ICT4Peace was invited by the UN NewYork to moderate on 16 December 2015 atechnical panel discussion onCollaboration between the Public andPrivate Sector to promote safety andcounter messaging on the Internet, toprevent the recruitment of terrorists andincite terrorist acts, while respectinghuman rights and fundamentalfreedoms.

Read more here.

at articulating its vision for a societydriven by information andcommunications technology (ICT),concluded its final phase in 2005. Thecurrent meeting therefore representedthe views of UN member states on whatthe last decade of follow-up of WSISsignified for the health of the“information society” and its futureprospects.

Read more here.

Second ProtectionInformation Management(PIM) meeting, led byUNHCR

Having participated remotely in the firstProtection Information Management(PIM) meeting held in May 2015, andsubsequently given input to workingdocuments that captured the discussionsat the meeting, ICT4Peace Foundation’sSanjana Hattotuwa was invited byUNHCR and the Danish Refugee Council(DRC) to attend the second PIM meeting,held in Geneva from 2 – 4 December.http://ict4peace.org/?p=4007Read more here.

ICT4Peace Lecture atthe Executive School ofManagement, Technologyand Law, University ofSt. Gallen

ICT4Peace’s Daniel Stauffacher wasinvited by Dr. Daniel Woker, Ambassador-in-Residence at the Executive School ofManagement, Technology and Law (ES-HSG) of the University of St.Gallen togive a lecture on the use of Informationand Communication Technology (ICT) forCrisis Management, Peacebuilding andProtection of Human Dignity.

Read more here.

First of its kindworkshop on ICTs andConstitution BuildingThe ICT4Peace Foundation, incollaboration with International Idea andGoogle Ideas, curated the first of its kindworkshop on technology andconstitutional building processes at theNational Constitution Centre inPhiladelphia, on Monday, 16 November2015.

The concept note to the workshop canbe read here.

As noted on the event webpage, themaking of a Constitution is one of themost difficult processes a nation canembark on. As well as critical politicalhurdles of reaching agreement among

ICT4Peace at theInternational InformationSecurity ResearchConsortium Conferencein Seoul, KoreaThe ICT4Peace Foundation was in invitedto participate in the 12th InternationalInformation Security ResearchConsortium Conference (IISRCConference), which was hosted bythe Korea University Law School on 2 and3 November 2015 in Seoul, Korea. Hispresentation at the Conference can befound here.

There topics on the agenda were: 1.State sovereignty and state boundary incyberspace; 2. Theater of militaryoperations in cyberspace. The conceptof “neutrality” and neutral states incyberspace; 3. Identification andmarking of objects in cyberspace thatare protected by internationalhumanitarian law; 4. Criticalinfrastructure objects in cyberspace &international law; 5. The scope ofdistinction, proportionality andprecaution principles withincyberwarfare; 6. The concepts of“combatant” and “non-combatants” inrelation to armed conflict in cyberspace.

Read more here.

Hate speech, electionsand social media:Presentation for MIMU inYangon, MyanmarAt the invitation of the Myanmar

disparate groups regarding the basicstructure and vision for the country,there are a number of other challengesthat must be overcome if theconstitution making process is tosucceed. These include learning fromthe vast experience of other countries,ensuring the citizenry are kept informedand involved in the process and allowingopportunity for citizens to participate inthe process, such that the constitutionresults from the voices of the people –their hopes, dreams, fears and concerns.

Read more here.

ICT4Peace at UN WorldSummit on theInformation Society(WSIS) 10 Year ReviewConsultations in NewYorkICT4Peace at UN World Summit on theInformation Society (WSIS) 10 YearReview Consultations in New York

Former Canadian Ambassador PaulMeyer, Senior Advisor, ICT4PeaceFoundation, kindly representedICT4Peace at the Second World Summiton the Information WSIS+10 InteractiveStakeholder Consultations at UNHeadquarters in New York on October19, 2015.

Read more here.

ICT4Peace CapacityBuilding Program forInternational CyberSecurity Negotiations in

Information Management Unit (MIMU),Sanjana Hattotuwa conducted aninformation presentation on hate anddangerous speech monitoring pluscounter-speech strategies, as well associal media strategies during and inresponse to elections. Both were basedon his experience in the strategic designof content and deployment of socialmedia apps, services and platformsagainst hate speech as well as in theservice of election monitoring and votereducation.

Read more here.

ICT4Peace at SwissBusiness AssociationSingapore onCybersecurity as aninternational challengefor States andCompaniesICT4Peace’s Daniel Stauffacher wasinvited by the Swiss Business AssociationSingapore to give a presentation on theCyber-war-threat as an internationalchallenge for states and companies.

Read more here.

SingaporeAs part of its Capacity Building Programfor International Cyber SecurityNegotiations, ICT4Peace organized thefirst cybersecurity policy and diplomacyworkshop for ASEAN countries on 19 and20 October 2015 in Singapore. Theworkshop was hosted by the Governmentof Singapore and co-organized byICT4Peace and The S. Rajaratnam Schoolof International Studies (RSIS). It is thethird workshop organized by ICT4Peace,after conducting the same course inBogota for Latin American Countries inCooperation with OAS, and for EastAfrican countries in Nairobi incooperation with the Government ofKenya and at the Hague GlobalConference on Cyberspace (GCCS)hosted by the Government of theNetherlands. The next workshop will beheld for all African countries at the AUin Addis Ababa in February 2016 and forthe Diplomatic Community in Geneva inMarch 2016. Further information aboutthe ICT4Peace Capacity Building Programfor International Cyber SecurityNegotiations.

Read more here.

ICT4Peace BaselineReview published inChinese LanguageICT4Peace is honoured to announce thatits acclaimed paper BASELINE REVIEW ofICT-RELATED PROCESSES & EVENTS has

been published in the Chinese languageas part of its cooperation with the ChinaInstitutes of Contemporary InternationalRelations (CICIR), Beijing.

At the 2013 Seoul Conference onCyberspace, the ICT4Peace Foundationhosted a side-meeting during whichstrong emphasis was placed on ensuringgreater inclusivity with regard to on-going and emerging cyber security-related processes, including with regardto ensuring greater regionalparticipation in related discussions anddebate, and greater involvement of civilsociety, industry and academia (as perthe UN GGE reports). ICT4PeaceFoundation’s related plenary Statementreiterated these views, committing itselfto ensuring that information on thedifferent processes reaches a broadergeographical audience and establishingmeans to report these views togovernment. The release of the baselinereview report in Chinese language ia nowa further step in this direction. Thetranslation into Spanish is planned.

Read more here.

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Download a report on the use of Information and Communications

Technologies for peacebuilding (ICT4Peace), with a Preface by Kofi

A. Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations here. An

updated version of this report, with critical analysis on current

policies and practices of ICTs in peacebuilding and crises was

published in early 2011. Published in collaboration with the Berkman

Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and

GeorgiaTech, Peacebuilding in the Information Age: Sifting Hype

from Reality can be read here.

ICT4Peace took root with pioneering

research on the role of ICTs in

preventing, responding to and

recovering from conflict in 2003 and

lead to the adoption of Paragraph 36

by the World Summit on the

Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis in

2005 which recognises “...the

potential of ICTs to promote peace

and to prevent conflict which, inter

alia, negatively affects achieving

development goals. ICTs can be used

for identifying conflict situations

through early-warning systems

preventing conflicts, promoting their

peaceful resolution, supporting

humanitarian action, including

protection of civilians in armed

conflicts, facilitating peacekeeping

missions, and assisting post conflict

peace-building and reconstruction".

The ICT4Peace Foundation works to

promote the practical realisation of

Paragraph 36 and looks at the role of

ICT in crisis management, covering

aspects of early warning and conflict

prevention, peace mediation,

peacekeeping, peace-building as well

as natural disaster management and

humanitarian operations.

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