Stakeholder consultation on Draft Cyber security Policy 2078

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MoCIT) issued a draft National Cyber Security Policy 2078 in May 2021. The draft policy missed to ensure stakeholders’ consultation, public comments, inputs, and suggestions. Thus, DRN created a platform for a wide range of stakeholders’ consultation to capture their perspectives and suggestions.

A virtual stakeholder consultation was organized on June 6, 2021 in collaboration with Internet Governance Institute (IGI). A total of 130 people participated the event representing from various areas of the digital rights advocacy ecosystems including lawyers, civil society representatives, academia, development practitioners and cyber security professionals. Mr. Vivek Rana, Mr. KP Dhungana, Ms. Nitu Pandit, Dr. Rajib Subba, Mr. Anjani Phnyual, and Ms. Roja Kiran Basukala highlighted the different aspects and insights of the draft policy.

Constitutional values of the freedom of speech, right to privacy and respect to human rights, absence of human rights-based approach (HRBA), multi-stakeholder approach on internet governance, security related issues of public cloud services, ethical hacking, accountability of service providers etc. were widely discussed in the meeting. Similarly, stakeholders raised concern over the lack of coordination with civil society and private sector during the policy formation. Hence, GoN Joint Secretary, MOCIT, Mr. Anil Kumar Dutta expressed his commitment to collaborate with DRN and other stakeholders in the coming days.

The meeting was successful on bringing concerns and voices of wider stakeholders, creating a common platfrom for both the CSOs and the government as well as on raising awareness of digital security through media and publicity. Further to the virtual consultation, DRN has submitted the meeting’s recommendation over the draft policy to MoCIT.