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The comment on the draft programme paper has now been submitted to the IGF Secretariat, as below. <BR>
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Thank you to all those who have extended their support at such short notice. I have been tremendously happy to see how many people have gotten back on this within only slightly more than 24 hours - it's encouraging to see what potential this list continues to have, despite recent events :)<BR>
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Best wishes,<BR>
Anja<BR>
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<B><U>Re: IGF Draft Programme Paper, August 2009</U></B><BR>
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We, the undersigned would like to express our surprise and disappointment that Internet Rights and Principles was not retained as an item on the agenda of the 2009 IGF in any way. Although this topic was suggested as a theme for this year's IGF or for a main session by a range of actors during and in the run-up to May's Open Consultations, this widespread support is not reflected in the Draft Programme Paper, which does not include Internet Rights and Principles even as a sub-topic of any of the main sessions. The WSIS Declaration of Principles, 2003, and the Tunis Agenda, 2005, explicitly reaffirmed the centrality of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to an inclusive information society. To make these commitments meaningful, it is of great importance that a beginning is made to explicitly building understanding and consensus around the meaning of Internet Rights and Principles at the earliest. We recommend that the Agenda of the 2009 IGF provide the space to do so.<BR
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<B>Signatories:</B><BR>
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Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore<BR>
IP Justice <BR>
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Jacques Berleur<BR>
Ginger Paque<BR>
Fouad Bajwa<BR>
Milton L Mueller<BR>
Willie Currie, Association for Progressive Communications (APC)<BR>
Michael Gurstein<BR>
Jeanette Hofmann<BR>
Eric Dierker<BR>
Jeffrey A Williams<BR>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Charity Gamboa, chairperson Internet Governance Working Group, ISOC Philippines </FONT><BR>
Ian Peter<BR>
Trace F. Hackshaw<BR>
Shaila Rao Mistry, Internet Rights and Principles<BR>
Lee W McKnight<BR>
Jeremy Malcolm<BR>
Tapani Tarvainen<BR>
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Dr. Anja Kovacs<BR>
Fellow<BR>
Centre for Internet and Society<BR>
T: +91 80 4092 6283<BR>
<A HREF="http://www.cis-india.org">www.cis-india.org</A>
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