On March 3 and 7, Professor Huang Zhixiong, Vice Dean of the Law School and Director of the Institute for Cyber Governance, attended the "2023 Cyber Stability Conference" hosted by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research and the "Application of International Humanitarian Law Principles in the Use of ICTs" side conference hosted by Estonia and other countries at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and delivered keynote speeches respectively.

  The theme of the 2023 Cyber Stability Conference is "Use of ICTs By States: Rights And Responsibilities Under The UN Charter". The conference mainly discusses the application of rights and obligations under the Charter of the United Nations in cyberspace, with a view to promoting multilateral negotiations on international rules in cyberspace within the framework of the United Nations. The conference was divided into four topics. One scholar acted as a briefer to explain the core issues of the topic in the discussion of each topic. The speakers for the other topics were all government representatives to express the positions and propositions of different countries. More than 1,000 government representatives, experts, scholars, and representatives of various stakeholders registered online and offline. Prof Huang Zhixiong was invited to be the keynote speaker of the third panel "Role and Powers of the UN Security Council ". He analyzed the overall role and powers of the Security Council in accordance with the UN Charter and its specific embodiment in the field of information and communication technology from a virtual case and summarized the representative propositions on the role and powers of the Security Council in relevant multilateral processes and national positions. He believed that despite the growing differences and "de-collectivization" among countries in the security field in recent years, the Security Council should still play an important role in maintaining the security of information and communication technology in the digital era, and it is in the interest of all countries to pay more attention to the multilateral security mechanism represented by the Security Council.

  The side conference "Application of International Humanitarian Law Principles in the Use of ICTs" was co-organized by the Governments of Estonia, Switzerland, Indonesia and Rwanda during the Fourth Substantive Session of the Second United Nations Open Working Group on Information Security (OEWG), held from 6-10 March 2023. More than 100 representatives from governments, experts, scholars and stakeholders attended the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Estonia's Cyber Diplomacy Ambassador Tanel Sepp. Speakers were Tilman Rodenhauser, Legal Counsel of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Professor Mariana Salazar Albornoz of Mexico's Ibero-American University, and Huang Zhixiung. Focusing on relevant scenarios, Huang Zhixiong analyzed the complex challenges in distinguishing civilians from combatants and civilian objects from military targets when the principle of distinction, a core principle of international humanitarian law, is applied to cyber operations under the background of armed conflict. He advocated using dynamic and evolutionary interpretation methods to explain the application of existing rules in the "digital battlefield". It strives to avoid excessive militarization of cyberspace and maximize the protection of civilian interests. Professor Huang believes that in the future, it is necessary to consider the formulation of new specific treaties and protocols to improve the existing rules based on relevant State practice.

  Prof Huang Zhixiong's speech at the above conference attracted the active attention and discussion of relevant participants and was highly recognized by the conference organizers.