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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Dear All<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>We had proposed IGC inputs to the synthesis paper for IGF
Hyderabad on two topics – ‘rights and the Internet’ and
‘review of the IGF’.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Since no comments have come in, a draft is being proposed.
We can build in comments and suggestions into it. However if a very different
starting draft is found necessary we can do it through a working group. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The synthesis paper is a place to put in substantive ideas
and positions that we may want to present. Somewhat like putting forth such
ideas/ positions at the IGF meeting itself. The paper is a good
‘space’ through which we can try to reach the IGF participants. The
draft is done with this context in mind. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The enclosed draft is on the issue of ‘rights and the
internet’, and we acknowledge the work done, and being done, by the
Dynamic Coalition of Internet Bill of Rights in this regard. I will try
another, shorter, draft on the issue of ‘review of the IGF’ too. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>It is a very rough initial draft to trigger discussion and
inputs. There must be a lot of gaps/ inconsistencies especially in capturing
the rights ecology in relation to the Internet. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The deadline for sending these in is 12<sup>th</sup>
September. And if do agree on sending a contribution it has to be put through
consensus process after finalizing the text.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Thanks<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Parminder <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-style:italic'>IGC’s input -1 to the
synthesis paper for IGF, Hyderabad.<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-weight:bold'> ‘Rights and the
Internet’ as the over-arching theme for IGF-4, at Cairo <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>Global internet
policy making and Rights – Role of the IGF and its constituent civil
society<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Civil Society Internet Governance Caucus (IGC) is a civil society
organization that seeks to “promote global public interest objectives in
Internet governance policy making”, towards “realization of
internationally agreed human rights, social equity </span></font><font
face=Arail><span style='font-family:Arail'>and interdependence</span></font><font
size=2 face=Monaco><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Monaco'>,</span></font>
cultural concerns, and both social and economic development”. The mission
of the IGC “is to provide a forum for discussion, advocacy, action, and
for representation of civil society contributions in Internet governance
processes”.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>IGF has the principal mandate and challenge of contributing to global
Internet policy making, which is beset with a formidable problem. On one hand,
it is an important emerging policy area, with a strong global mooring, as the
Internet becomes central to more and more social institutions, and on the other
hand, global political structures are, very often, either too weak or otherwise
unsuitable to be up to the challenge of effectively making democratic and
public-interest centered Internet policies. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>In times when there is uncertainly about appropriate institutions for
policy making, as in case of global Internet policies, it may help to first
focus on ‘constitutional’ principles that must underpin these
polices, and inform the activities of the institutions that are engaged in this
activity – both extant, and emerging. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Some of such ‘constitutional’ principles are related to
process. Council of Europe and Association of Progressive Communications have
been doing some important work in this regard on the issue of “a code of
conduct for public participation in IG”. There are also some other
initiatives seeking to examine how (process related) ‘WSIS
principles’ of mulitistakeholderism,
transparency, participation and democratic governance can be applied in the
extant IG institutions. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>It is however equally important to evolve some substantive
‘constitutional’ principles<a style='mso-footnote-id:ftn1'
href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><sup><sup><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>[1]</span></font></sup></sup></a>
that should inform global Internet policies, and the concerned institutional
framework. WSIS called for a ‘people-centric’ information society,
and the way to construct such an information society is to proceed from placing
people’s rights at the centre, in a manner that includes all people of
the world in their specific social contexts. Framing of such ‘peoples
rights in the information society’ will consist in contextualizing
existing human rights to the Internet age, as well identifying new rights-based
conceptualizations that are relevant to the new and emerging situations.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>It is relevant to note here that much of the existing global polity, to
the extend it does exist, is based on globally agreed human rights. This
provides a good precedent for basing a global Internet policy institutional
framework on ‘rights in relation to the Internet’. The WSIS
Declaration of Principles also opens with a strong reaffirmation of human
rights as the basis of shaping the emerging information society. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>IGF will make an important contribution to global Internet policy
making if it picks up and drives a rights-based discourse regarding the
Internet and the information society. The ideas and principles emerging
from such a discourse can then inform institutions that actually make Internet
policies, and the shaping of new institutional frameworks, that may be
required, the possible need of which was identified by the Tunis Agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>The Internet Governance Caucus therefore strongly recommends that
‘Rights and the Internet’ be made as the overarching theme for
IGF-4 in Egypt, and the IGF-4’s program be dominated by the need for
developing a rights-based discourse in the area of Internet Governance. The
Caucus has already expressed support to the letter on this subject which was
sent by the Dynamic Coalition on Internet Bill of Rights to the MAG.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>IGC offers IGF all assistance in helping shape such a people-centered
‘rights-based discourse’ at the IGF meetings, and specifically to
help operationalise the proposal of making ‘rights and the
Internet’ as the overarching theme for IGF-4 in Egypt. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic'>A complex new emerging
ecology of ‘rights and the Internet’<o:p></o:p></span></font></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Freedom of expression and openness of the Internet are underpinned by
recognized basic human rights. Privacy in the digital space is increasingly
understood as a very important Internet right. Conceptions of ‘rights and
the Internet’ extend to the area of positive rights – for
instance in the area of access, where a ‘right to the Internet’ is
being articulated by some groups, and to collective rights like cultural
rights, which can underpin the important IGF thematic area of cultural
diversity. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Many important Internet policy areas, like network neutrality, are
being framed in terms of rights, like a right to know, access information<a
style='mso-footnote-id:ftn2' href="#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span
class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><span class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>[2]</span></font></sup></span></sup></span></a>
and share information, including perhaps freedom of expression itself. Right to
public information takes a wholly new context in a digital environment, where
digital public information is publicly sharable at little or no extra cost. One
project looks at any ‘positive acts’ of withholding digital public
information from citizens as a form of censorship. All these rights-based
conception covers the IGF theme area of ‘openness’. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Many other rights like the right of association and the right of
political participation have important new implications in the Internet age,
including in terms of the kind of Internet policies that best serve public
interest. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>It is a widely held fear that while the Internet gives unprecedented
new economic, social and political opportunities in many new areas, it may further
widen economic, social and political divides. It is for this reason that
‘development’ has always been a central theme for all IGF meetings.
In this context, it may be useful to explore what does the ‘right to
development’ mean in this new, much more globalized, context. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Consumers of digital products face new challenges and consumer’s
right<a style='mso-footnote-id:ftn3' href="#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span
class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><span class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>[3]</span></font></sup></span></sup></span></a>
to know and completely ‘own’ the products and services they pay for
is another important emerging area of rights. This has great relevance in a
context where corporates are able to extend their digital arms of control
inside people’s houses and personal devices, in a manner largely
unsuspected by the ordinary consumers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Right to property normally has been considered as an important right.
However its applicability and (remarkably quick and far-reaching) mutations in
the digital space, in form of IP rights is greatly contested. In fact, this
contestation is the primary political economy contestation of the emerging
information society. Is IP right a ‘real’ right? Are corporate
entities entitled to ‘rights’ as we understand the term
‘rights’? What public interest principles much underpin any
conception of IPR? In the new context, what is the significance of further
developing the concept of a right to access knowledge, in the digital space? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Internet governance till today has largely been based, initially, on
technical principles of ‘neutrality’ and, increasingly, on
Internet’s nature as a giant global marketplace. With Internet becoming
much more that just a technical platform or a marketplace, and central to many
or most social and political institutions, an alternative basis and conceptual
framework for IG needs to be explored. In the view of the Caucus a right-based
framework will be most appropriate to be so explored and used. It is the also
Caucus’s view that the IGF is the institution best placed to take up this
task. This process should start in IGF, Hyderabad, where some workshops on
‘rights issues’ are being planned, and these issues will also
hopefully figure prominently in the main sessions. These discussions will help
IGF work towards developing ‘rights and the Internet’ as the
over-arching theme of IGF-4 in Egypt. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
<div style='mso-element:footnote-list'><br clear=all>
<hr align=left size=1 width="33%">
<div style='mso-element:footnote' id=ftn1>
<p class=MsoFootnoteText><a style='mso-footnote-id:ftn1' href="#_ftnref1"
name="_ftn1" title=""><span class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><span
class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>[1]</span></font></sup></span></span></font></sup></span></a>
To quote some existing initiatives here</p>
</div>
<div style='mso-element:footnote' id=ftn2>
<p class=MsoFootnoteText><a style='mso-footnote-id:ftn2' href="#_ftnref2"
name="_ftn2" title=""><span class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><span
class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>[2]</span></font></sup></span></span></font></sup></span></a>
Mentioned in TA</p>
</div>
<div style='mso-element:footnote' id=ftn3>
<p class=MsoFootnoteText><a style='mso-footnote-id:ftn3' href="#_ftnref3"
name="_ftn3" title=""><span class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><font size=2
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><span
class=MsoFootnoteReference><sup><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"'>[3]</span></font></sup></span></span></font></sup></span></a>
Mentioned in TA</p>
</div>
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