Call for human rights friendly national cyber policy

Different stakeholders, including civil society organizations have furnished their recommendations on the draft National Cyber Security Policy, 2080 made publicly available by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for public inputs and deliberations.

The citizen organizations and other stakeholders have largely called for open, safe, harmless and human rights-friendly cyber space in the country.

Handing over 27-point observations and recommendations on the national policy to Communications Minister Rekha Sharma on Thursday , the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) has urged the government to uphold Nepal's international commitment, universal values of civil rights and the constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights in the cyber security policy.

The national security policy should explicitly define and address evolving concepts of cyber security and cyber crime through a comprehensive plan aligning it with SDG goals, the memorandum noted.

Among other recommendations include aligning the national cyber security policy with the comprehensive national security, arrangement of key responsible agencies and resources for policy execution, embracing the key assumptions of open and safe internet, individual privacy, credibility, neutrality, accountability, interoperability and partnership, and adopting multi-stakeholder approach, informed CDD Chair Dr Dila Sangroula Pant.

Receiving the memorandum, Minister Sharma said the draft national cyber security policy was made public to elicit inputs and recommendations from different stakeholders. "The policy was introduced in the context when trends of incidents related to cyber crime and cyber attacks were on the rise", the minister noted.

A delegation comprising CDD Vice-Chair Sanjeeb Ghimire, general-secretary Jeewan Bhandari and secretary Sanil Nepal handed the memorandum to the minister at the latter's office.