[governance] RE: [Bill-of-Rights] Rights in IG research

Fri Aug 8 07:31:31 EDT 2008

Hi Max and all

Thanks for your interest in what we're doing.  I'm equally interested in
your work and in exploring potentials for collaboration.  Maybe we could
start a 'research ideas' and 'research in progress' page on the bill of
rights wiki?

Apologies in advance for the length of this email - those who aren't
interested can delete email or go into skim-read mode now!

The research we're doing is as part of the ongoing Freedom of Expression
Project.  I think I've mentioned before that we're working with 6 key
partner organizations in different countries to develop policy
principles that, if adhered to, would shape a global communications
environment that would support human rights and a 'public interest'
communications environment.  They address issues spanning
infrastructure, code and content.  The latest draft of the principles is
available and open for comment at
http://www.freedomofexpression.org.uk/resources/public+interest+principl
es+for+the+networked+communications+environment.  

The principles and values that they express are purposefully broad so
that they can be tailored to specific contexts.  The idea is for them to
provide an overarching framework for policy discussion and advocacy at
different scales.  For example, our project partners are currently
working to elaborate what they might mean in different country contexts,
and this in turn will provide the foundations for policy work.  A major
aim is to identify spaces where different stakeholders can agree that
they share certain values and principles, and work to shape policy
accordingly.

We have been working to base all of our work so far in international
human rights standards, in particular freedom of expression, the right
to culture and the right to participation in government.  We've taken an
expansive definition of freedom of expression that many (but not all)
human rights institutions and lawyers around the world take.  This
includes positive dimensions of freedom of expression, including the
notion that governments are responsible for putting the necessary
structures/infrastructures in place for the right to be realized.
Incidentally, that's why I don't believe that we need to be advocating
for new rights such as the right to the internet or to communication.
The sentiments and demands expressed by these 'new' rights are already
contained within the human rights system.  In my opinion, our energy
should be focused on further developing and upholding what we have
already, for example, further embedding expansive definitions of freedom
of expression in rights and policy institutions.  And, as Anriette and
Milton importantly pointed out, in furthering/developing understanding
about what international rights standards and compliance with them
actually means in practice.

The research that I referred to before is intended to contribute to this
effort, illustrating how an expansive definition of freedom of
expression is being supported in contemporary legal and philosophical
thought and case law, and identifying areas where further work needs to
be done.  It is taking our policy principles framework as a starting
point, ensuring that it is firmly rooted in the international human
rights system.  In this way, if the framework was used as a basis for
policy discussion, human rights standards would effectively be
'mainstreamed' within the discussions.

Whilst I'm sure some would make the argument that these aren't IG
issues, we hope that we're making a positive contribution towards
ensuring that the 'shared norms and principles that shape the use and
evolution of the internet' are rooted in human rights standards.  These
are the most widely accepted and acknowledged ethical standards in the
world, which (in reference to earlier conversations) is why it makes
sense to us to work with them and build on them, rather than try to
reinvent or disregard them.  

I'll leave it there for now, but I'm interested to hear anybody's
thoughts on the work we're doing,  and am keen to explore opportunities
to collaborate on further research on any of these issues.

Many thanks,

Lisa

From: bill-of-rights-bounces at ipjustice.org
[mailto:bill-of-rights-bounces at ipjustice.org] On Behalf Of Max Senges
Sent: 06 August 2008 17:36
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Anriette Esterhuysen;
bill-of-rights at ipjustice.org
Subject: [Bill-of-Rights] Rights in IG research

dear lisa and all

Lisa wrote:
> We've just commissioned some research into how policy principles based
> around notions such as net neutrality, interoperability, universal
> access and content diversity can be rooted in the international human
> rights system which will hopefully yield some interesting insights...

that sounds very interesting. Stanford lawschool's Center for Internet
and Society has offered to collaborate by contributing research and i
agreed to frame research opportunities/themes for student projects to be
taken up in the fall. 

It would be great to team up or at least be aware of all the other
research undertaken to better understand a Rights based approach to IG.

Lisa could you share a bit more info about Global Partners research? 

Everybody else doing research work in this area is very much invited to
get in touch so we can ensure we complement, share and avoid duplication

best
max

On Wed, Aug 6, 2008 at 5:37 AM, Anriette Esterhuysen <anriette at apc.org>
wrote:

Hallo all

Lisa, you are correct in that the SA Human Rights Commission is the
appropriate
institution to deal with this. In fact they deal with hate speech issues
quite often.

They are under-resourced, but they do do excellent work.  Here is their
URL
http://www.sahrc.org.za/sahrc_cms/publish/cat_index_26.shtml

Draft hate speech legislation has been before parlaiment a few times
here in South
Africa.  I am not sure what the status is. If I remember correctly the
draft bill was badly
not well conceived and very controversial.

I certainly think that making a formal complaint to the HRC (human
rights
commission) would the way to start if the intension is to create public
awareness of
the issue.

It will also drive lots of traffic to the site.... which is less
desirable.  Personally, Rui, I
would just ignore it.

Lisa, I completely agree with you about the relationship between rights
and internet
governance. Sadly I think that we have lost ground since WSIS.  As you
say there is a
lot of work to be done to get beyond rights rhetoric and to work out
what the
implementable rights-based public policy principles are that we can work
with on
specific issues, e.g. those you mention, for example net-neutrality.
APC tries to adopt
this approach in our access work.

I also think that the mainstream human rights movement has not engaged
this terrain
enough, altough there are exceptions.

Anriette

Date sent:              Wed, 6 Aug 2008 12:09:58 +0100
From:                   "Lisa Horner" <lisa at global-partners.co.uk>
To:                     <governance at lists.cpsr.org>,
       "Rui Correia" <correia.rui at gmail.com>
Subject:                RE: [governance] Taking down a site [was:
beijing ticket scam]
Send reply to:          governance at lists.cpsr.org,"Lisa Horner"
<lisa at global-
partners.co.uk>

> Echoing Ian, I wonder if it would be worth filing a complaint with the
> South African Human Rights Commission?  The SA bill of rights states
> that freedom of expression doesn't extend to "advocacy of hatred that
> is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes
> incitement to cause harm." Is this supported by any other legislation
> in SA?
>
> So many of our discussions around internet governance issues can be
> approached from a rights perspective, but human rights lawyers and
> institutions are usually absent from the debate.  Human rights and
> their associated tools and mechanisms are arguably one of the only
> global governance institutions that is 'thickening' in the current age
> of 'globalisation'.  Human rights approaches also have an inbuilt
> framework for balancing out tensions between different rights and
> responsibilities.  However, there's still a lot of work to be done in
> bringing them up to date and ensuring that they're capable of dealing
> with new issues, including those relating to freedom of expression and
> the internet.  I wonder if engaging directly with national human
> rights institutions is one way of starting that process?
>
> In a way, this is linked to Anriette's comment that many new campaigns
> around rights are a-historical.  Similarly, I think that they should
> be rooted in, or at least have a firm understanding of, existing human
> rights institutions, both formal and informal and at all scales.
> We've just commissioned some research into how policy principles based
> around notions such as net neutrality, interoperability, universal
> access and content diversity can be rooted in the international human
> rights system which will hopefully yield some interesting insights...
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Thanks,
> Lisa

------------------------------------------------------
Anriette Esterhuysen, Executive Director
Association for Progressive Communications
anriette at apc.org
http://www.apc.org
PO Box 29755, Melville, South Africa. 2109
Tel. 27 11 726 1692
Fax 27 11 726 1692

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-------------------------------------------------
Dr. Max Senges
Stanford Post-Doc Visiting Scholar
UOC Research Associate 
Freelance Consultant

98 Loyola Ave., Menlo Park, California 94025

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