This Programme examines the influence of technology and development – how these have either promoted digital transformation or undermined it. The governance of the internet and its attendants such as norms, rules, guidelines and standards are approached. We discuss and assess the different schools of thoughts and offer insightful opinions that informs and shapes debates in these field. The regulations and jurisdictional assertion of internet laws are examined. We analyze internet development, technology, practices and evolution in the field to guide policy options at local and international level. Our projects in this field contributes to informing research and perspectives from the broad perspective of international relations. We explore the questions of governance and internet laws, international norms, standards and behaviors of states in the cyber space. We question as well as reflect on aspects of cyber governance, offering insights and perspectives based on literature and realities to inform debates, policy formulation in the field.
Our engagements have since been evident in multi-stakeholder conversations and debates at national, regional and global levels. For instance, we participated at the Forum on internet Freedom in Africa in 2019 and 2020, we have also participated actively at the RightsCon online edition 2020. Other multi-stakeholder forums that we participate in is the African internet governance Forum and the Global Internet Governance Forum to mention but a few. Below are some sessions we have organized and led since 2019.
“Cyber Anarchy”. Is internet governance anarchical in nature?
Lighting talk at the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa, Addis, Ethiopia
23-26 September 2019
Speaker: Moses Owiny
By using the term Cyber Anarchy we connote the absence of a central authority in the governance of internet at the global level to order state behaviors. This means governing the internet in which rules apply just like in international and normative laws is cumbersome. States such as Tanzania and Uganda govern internet on the basis of their sovereign authority, its primacy within the international system and often or completely ignores international internet norms, declaration and principles to mention but a few. Tanzania enacted the 2015 Cyber Crime Act which is now used to stifle internet rights of users including journalists, activists.
The cyber act 2015 focuses on ‘publication of false information’ and yet the context of ‘false information ‘remains ambiguous and largely relative’ depending to whose perspective between the regime, subscribers or civil society. The Ugandan State on the other hand, has repeatedly shut down its internet, arrested journalist and bloggers and used the Computer Misuse Act 2011 as a weapon to silence critics. The internet in the two countries have become highly politicized.
It is through the veins of such an insight for internet governance in which the term “cyberanachization” was conceived to clarify that the state of internet governance in Tanzania and Uganda is anarchical in nature. In attendance during the lightning talk were participants from the UN Multi-stakeholder Advisory Group (MAG), International Organizations like Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and others.
RightsCon 2020 Online Edition
Topic: Militarization of the Cyberspace: Grappling with the Applicability of International Law to Cyberspace
Moderator & Organizer: Moses Owiny, Founder and Chief Executive at the Centre for Multilateral Affairs (CfMA)
Abstract:
Cyberspace has increasingly become a domain under which bilateral and multilateral hostilities have been perpetuated among and between nation states. Often, the actions of non-state actors have contributed to rendering the space problematic. Consequently, the need to protect the critical network infrastructures and associated networks and tools in cyberspace against adversarial actions and attacks by individuals, non-state actors, and nation states have led to an increased need for defensive – and many would argue also for offensive – capabilities to protect the cyber domain.
In 2019, Verizon’s data breach investigations compiled data breaches from 73 data sources and found that state affiliated actors account for nearly 79% of all breaches involving external actors – with cyber espionage being the bulk of the activities (Farlina, 2020). The 2007 Estonian attack, the 2010 Iranian Stuxnet attack at the Iranian nuclear facility – led subsequently to many nation states including the US, UK, China, Netherlands etc. to develop cyber command centers to centralize and protect its infrastructures. How do you build confidence and trust amongst and or between states? How are normative frameworks helpful in mitigating the increasing militarization of the cyber space. What do these developments tell us about the realities of developing nations e.g. in Sub- Saharan Africa? This panel explored these questions and discussed various dimensions of international cyber security between and amongst states and other non-state actors.
Speakers:
Latha Reddy, Former Deputy National Security Advisor to the Government of India and co-chair of the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC). In addition, to assisting the National Security Advisor, Reddy was responsible for cyber security and other critical internal and external security issues.
Tatiana Tropina Assistant Professor in Cybersecurity governance at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University and Associate Fellow of The Hague Program for Cyber Norms and a member of the Freedom Online Coalition Advisory Network.
Sarvjeet Singh, Executive Director, at the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi
Sheetal Kumar, Senior Programme Lead at Global Partners Digital and responsible for strategic oversight of their Global Cyber Security Capacity Building Programme.
Deborah Brown, Digital Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch based in New York. Previously coordinated global advocacy at the Association for Progressive Communications (APC).
Stéphane Duguin, He is the Chief Executive at the Cyber Peace Institute based in Geneva, Switzerland. His mission is to coordinate a collective response to decrease the frequency, impact, and scale of cyberattacks by sophisticated actors
Anriette Esterhuyen (Co-Organizer), Former Executive Director of the Association for Progressive Communications (APC), member of the Global Commission on the Stability of the Cyberspace (GCSCS) and chair of the Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee (IGFMAG)
How authoritarian leaders use ambiguous and rhetorical terms to dramatise internet shutdowns in Africa
RightsCon 2020 Online Edition
Moderator: Moses Owiny
Time: 7:45-8:45am UTC-4/Toronto time
This session explored the various cases of internet shutdowns in Africa. Using the exact explanations often given by African leaders to justify internet shutdowns, the session based on the vast experiences of panelists note that these explanations are ambiguous in nature and mere rhetoric. This is because there are no substantive arguments offered by authoritarian regimes in principle and within the context of human and fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals and even in the so-called ‘national security interest’. The threat authoritarian governments argue brings to national security requiring ‘internet shutdowns’ are often dramatized. The panel of experts working in the field, e.g. from Access Now, OTF, Women of Uganda Network, and others illuminated this discussion by bringing real life experiences from countries where shutdowns have taken place.
Speakers:
Sandra Aceng, GNI Fellow and Program Officer WOUGNET, Women of Uganda Network
Kris Ruijgrok, Information Control Fellow, Open Technology Fund
Felicia Anthonio, #KeepItOn Campaign Lead, Access Now
Nsekanabo Sheila, Research Associate, Centre for Multilateral Affairs (CfMA)
