President Macky Sall's candidacy for the office of UN Secretary-General counts cyberspace among the fields of peace. A digital attack can now shut down a power grid, freeze a hospital or empty a banking system, without a single shot fired. War has changed ground faster than the law that governs it.
A field of conflict without clear rules. States acquire digital weapons while the line between the permitted and the forbidden stays blurred. An anonymous attack, launched from one territory against another, often escapes any attribution and any sanction. The legal vacuum benefits whoever strikes unseen.
Norms already written, still to be enforced. The member states of the United Nations have endorsed eleven norms of responsible behaviour in cyberspace: do not target civilian infrastructure, do not host attacks, cooperate in the face of incidents. These rules exist; what remains is to make them binding and verifiable. The Secretary-General can keep that work open.
Protecting what keeps people alive. Hospitals, water, energy, elections: the most sensitive targets are civilian. An international framework that places them out of reach, as the law of war protects non-combatants, answers the same demand of civilisation. Digital security has become part of security itself.
What the Secretariat can carry. The Secretary-General does not code the firewalls, but can gather states around a common floor, support the working group the UN already devotes to digital security, and recall that no country protects itself alone when an attack crosses the world in a second.
Experience in multilateral negotiation. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin these commitments. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The norms of responsible behaviour in cyberspace adopted at the United Nations are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net