[governance] Council of Europe Statement: The Internet as a Public Service

[Meryem Marzouki]

Le 20 nov. 07 à 17:45, michael gurstein a écrit :
>
> I haven't seen anyone point to this document as yet... It seems on  
> first and quick glance to be a most useful and valuable one and  
> goes considerably further and more specific than the parallel  
> output of the WSIS process.

(https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?Ref=CM/Rec(2007)16)

I share this view (and, currently, the disclaimer re: first and quick  
glance). Actually, this CoE Recommendation is more or less rather  
consolidating previous documents, specially the "Declaration on Human  
Rights and the Rule of Law in the Information Society", adopted on 13  
May 2005 (http://www.coe.int/t/e/integrated_projects/democracy/ 
02_Activities/00_Declaration_on_Information_Society/).
On this, see also reports published in edrigram (European Digital  
Rights - EDRI - newsletter), both issues dated 20 April 2005 and 24  
May 2005 : http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.8/CoE and http:// 
www.edri.org/edrigram/number3.10/CoE

BTW, the group who prepared this 2005 Declaration (Multidisciplinary  
Ad-hoc Committee of Experts on the Information Society (CAHSI)) was  
chaired by Greek Ambassador George Papadatos (some of you may  
remember he was head of Greek delegation to WSIS as well as the main  
organizer of IGF I in Athens), and the CoE Secretariat to this group  
was led by Michael Remmert, who was at that time leading the CoE  
"Good Governance in the Information Society" project, and is now  
responsible for the "CoE Ad Hoc Committee on e-democracy" (CAHDE).  
Some of you may have met him, I know he was in Rio, with the CoE  
delegation.

What's good with this new Recommendation is that it gives a higher  
normative level to the content of the Declaration, taking into  
account the hierarchy of these instruments.

What's bad (inter alia) with it is that it adds some rather strong  
prescriptive recommendation to CoE Member States to sign AND ratify  
the CoE cybercrime Convention, which is clearly one of the main  
priorities of the CoE re: ICTs, including at IGF. And there are many  
issues with this Convention (see: http://www.edri.org/edrigram/ 
number5.12/cybercrime-convention-dangerous).

What's more or less "neutral" with the text is that most of its  
provisions may turn out in one way or another, depending on  
implementation by CoE member States on the one hand, and by future  
documents (including other Recommendations) that would precise these  
provisions. Stay tuned, edrigram will have another article in its  
next issue to be published tomorrow evening (http://www.edri.org/ 
edrigram) on such CoE current developments.

However, this Recommendation is probably one of the most advanced  
w.r.t. access, and this makes the difference, although I don't  
understand why and how the CoE needs to be so prescriptive in terms  
of economic strategies: it should rather let these sovereign choices  
to member States, while concentrating on the objectives to be achieved.

Anyhow, to my knowledge, this Recommendation has been drafted  
directly by the CDMC (Steering Committee on the Media and New  
Communication Services, http://www.coe.int/T/E/Human%5FRights/ 
Media/), and not by any of its group of specialists (see list at  
http://www.coe.int/t/e/human_rights/media/1_Intergovernmental_Co- 
operation/), and adopted through a rather quick/light procedure, as  
the CoE wanted to have it ready for IGF II.

Best,
Meryem____________________________________________________________
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