Q3/2018 - French President Macron, Peace Forum

The French President Emanuel Macron has invited to a high-calibre Paris Peace Forum on 11 November 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of First World War. The aim of the forum is to draw conclusions from the experiences and events of the last 100 years and to establish projects to secure and develop peace, economic cooperation and human rights in the rest of the 21st century. Many heads of state and government are invited to the Forum, but it is generally designed as a multistakeholder event. There will be more than 50 workshops, held by a large variety of non-state organisations. Many of them will deal with Internet governance, cyber security, the evolution of the digital economy and securing human rights both online and offline.

The French government expects outcome documents on the various focal issues, which are planned to be included in a “Paris Peace Declaration”. As to the issue of cyberspace, a draft of a "Paris Roadmap for Trust and Security in Cyberspace" has been circulating since mid-September. The presently non-public draft does not contain any new ideas but takes up issues on which agreements have already been reached in various bodies (GGE, OSCE, ASEAN). What is new, however, is the readiness of state and non-state players to closer cooperate for promoting “Trust and Security in Cyberspace”. This refers in particular to the envisaged cooperation with Microsoft. Another conference may be held in 2019 to review the implementation of the Paris recommendations. Moreover, a bridge shall be built to the IGF 2019 in Berlin.

The Paris Peace Forum will be held simultaneously with the 13^th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) of the United Nations. The potential synergies arising from this coincidence are fully intended by the French government. President Macron will open the 13^th IGF with a keynote address, during which he will present the "Paris Roadmap for Trust and Security in Cyberspace". Later, this document shall be available for signing to governments and non-state institutions. However, critical voices asked, if the French government intended to launch another Internet process with the Forum, which would increase and probably duplicate the previous number of conferences and processes (IGF, Freedom Online Coalition, UN Panel, London Process, Wuzhen etc.) by another process and another Internet world conference. The title of the document "Roadmap" would suggest this and should be reconsidered.