[governance] IGF workshop: Internet for All

[karen banks]

Hi everyone

Please find below a reworked text for the 
'internet for all' workshop - which has evolved 
and in fact changed focus significantly since first posted to the caucus list.

The caucus group working on this proposal 
(internet for all) have also been working with 
the Bill of Rights Coalition - who are 
submitting  a 'mainstreaming-rights-into-IGF proposal'

We have discussed at length how best to approach 
human rights and IG - how to bring a rights 
perspective to the IGF - and we will have a long 
way to go - but it is certainly a good start.

The caucus folk and Bill of Rights folk will also 
express inhterest in helping to shape the main 
session of openness, security and privacy

The proposal below is not in the workshop 
proposal format (yet) but parminder has asked the 
secretariat for a short extension - wherein we 
will need to get the proposal into the template and identify some speakers..

karen

“Internet for All – Exploring a Rights-based Approach”

Internet for All has been proposed as the overall 
theme for the IGF, Hyderabad. The program 
document also states that this description is 
adapted from the UNESCO’s ‘Education for All’ 
initiative. Education for All takes a rights 
based approach to education, and also a very 
nuanced view of ‘what kind of education’ as well 
as the enabling conditions that are required for 
providing education for all ( 
http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=47044&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html 
) . This workshop will explore what does a 
‘Rights-based Approach to Internet for All’ 
means, and whether it provides the basis of an 
appropriate and viable set of guidelines in the area of Internet policies.

Universal service and universal access are widely 
accepted policy principles in case of telecom 
policies. However, the meaning and context of 
these terms in case of Internet is still not 
clear. Unlike telephony, Internet is much more 
than a ‘connection’ that ‘either you have or you 
don’t’. A draft resolution recommended by the 
11th session of CSTD for adoption by the ECOSOC 
(http://www.unctad.org/sections/wcmu/docs//ecn162008_r004_en.pdf 
) recently noted that ‘a new form of digital 
divide is emerging in terms of difference in 
quality and speed of access to ICTs’ ( OECD has 
also been grappling with definitional issues 
regarding universal access in terms of the 
Internet ( http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/57/40629067.pdf ).

Apart from the issues about what width of the 
pipe can constitute universal entitlement or a 
right, if at all, there are also at least two 
other sets of issues which need to be explored 
from a rights perspective (1) enabling conditions 
for making effective use of the available access 
and (2) the kind of the Internet one has access 
to.  A rights based approach to “Internet for 
All’ or what may be called as a ‘right to the 
Internet’ therefore has to explored in terms of 
many issues that go beyond mere access to the 
Internet, while including this important element.

Enabling conditions could be in terms of training 
and capacity building as well as the social, 
organizational, and managerial infrastructure. 
The “Education for All’ movement recognizes such 
conditions that are outside and beyond mere 
access to schools which are pertinent to ensuring education for all.

Other set of issues are about what kind of 
Internet does one have access to. This 
corresponds to quality and appropriateness of 
education in the ‘education for all’ movement. 
For instance, is one entitled to an Internet that 
recognizes one’s own language? It is significant 
to note in this respect that a recent UNESCO 
document speaks about ‘‘the right to learn in the 
mother tongue’ ( 
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001297/129728e.pdf 
). The WSIS declaration of Principles speaks of 
an “information society where everyone can 
create, access, utilize and share information”. 
Does it translate into a right to do so? What 
implication would such a right have on Internet 
policies, for instance with respect to network 
neutrality debate. Similarly, issues like online 
security, privacy and FoE may be possible to 
explore from a rights perspective to ‘Internet for all’.

Another set of issues are with respect to groups 
needing special consideration like people with 
disabilities, whose right to access to ‘new 
information and communications technologies and 
systems, including the Internet’ is recognized by 
the ‘International Convention on the Rights of 
Persons with Disabilities’ which came into force recently. 

____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance