[bestbits] Connectivity and human rights

Tue Jun 28 14:48:33 EDT 2016

Hi folks,

It might be time now to have a coordination call on moving this forward. I
will come back to you with some dates that work for Brett and myself in a
doodle.

You might have seem that Obama came out supporting it through a executive
order and that there is also a bill in the US Congress to institutionalize
even further the connectivity efforts.

https://www.publicknowledge.org/press-release/president-issues-executive-order-on-global-entrepreneurship-to-promote-affordable-internet-access

Hugs, C

On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 12:01 PM, Marianne Franklin <m.i.franklin at gold.ac.uk
> wrote:

> Dear Brett
>
> Thanks for letting us know, and looking forward to hearing about next
> steps. As Access is Article 1 of the IRPC Charter of Human Rights and
> Principles for the Internet, how connectivity relates to supporting access
> in practical terms does need addressing.
>
> best
>
> MF
>
> On 22/06/2016 13:47, Brett Solomon wrote:
>
> Dear friends,
>
> You might remember the two letters (here
> <http://bestbits.net/finance-ministers-global-connect/> and here
> <http://bestbits.net/global-connect-initiative/>)*
> <https://share.america.gov/globalconnect/>* sent through Best Bits last
> September and in April of this year
>
> * on the Global Connect Initiative.
> <https://share.america.gov/globalconnect/> *
> The overarching aim of the Global Connect is bring 1.5 billion people
> online by 2020.
>
> The Initiative is progressing including a meeting that took place
> following the April letter between US Secretary of State and the President
> of the World Bank. Many Finance Ministers also participated in that event
> at the World Bank designed at financing Global Connect.
>
> Despite the letters, the IEEE Report-out document that came out from the
> meeting, barely registered human rights, freedom of expression, privacy
> etc.
>
> A few of us (Access Now, Public Knowledge and APC) have started to work on
> a set of HR-based principles to inform connectivity initiatives including
> Global Connect.
>
> Given the renewed attention on connectivity, we see this as a good
> opportunity to develop a set of principles that addresses the human rights
> dimension of access, and that guide human rights as a foundation for
> rolling out connectivity - from participation of marginalized voices, to
> the nature of contractual arrangements, to protection of opinion online.
>
> Right now much of the discussion is centering around outstanding
> connectivity issues being essentially an engineering problem. The risk of
> course, if human rights do not inform connectivity initiatives is the roll
> out of a censored, throttled, monitored, militarized internet and could
> deepen inequalities within societies.
>
> We are using existing documents (eg WSIS+10 Outcome Document, Human Rights
> Council A/HRC/RES/26/13, Net Mundial, internet rights and principles
> charte <http://internetrightsandprinciples.org/site/charter/>r), APC
> Internet Rights Charter
> <https://www.apc.org/en/system/files/APC_charter_EN_0.pdf>to inform these
> principles.
>
> We wanted to see if others in the community would be interested in working
> with us. And we are looking specifically for those who have experience in
> expanding access (including in providing access in under-served communities
> and building community-based networks) and network engineers and would like
> to support us in this effort with expertise.
>
> Let us know if you're interested or if you have questions.
>
> Hope all are well!
>
> Brett
>
> Brett Solomon
> Executive Director
> Access Now | accessnow.org
>
> +1 917 969 6077 <%2B1%20917%20969%206077>
> @solomonbrett
> Key ID: 0x4EDC17EB
> Fingerprint: C02C A886 B0FC 3A25 FF9F ECE8 FCDF BA23 4EDC 17EB
>
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-- 

# # #
# • #
# # #
*Carolina Rossini *
Vice President, International Policy and Strategy
+ 1 (617) 697 9389 | skype: carolrossini | @carolinarossini
PGP ID:  0xEC81015C
*PublicKnowledge* | @publicknowledge <https://twitter.com/publicknowledge>
 | www.publicknowledge.org
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