[governance] Inputs for synthesis paper

[Milton L Mueller]

OK, I just made some extensive edits to the rights statement. A lot of
the small stuff was editorial, there was redundancy and awkwardness in
many sentences, perhaps reflecting the fragmentary approach of a shared
doc. I hope people agree on the stylistic improvements. 
 
Substantively, I tried to do two things: 
 
First, make it clearer that the definition and application of rights
talk is contested and complicated -- and use that to bolster the
argument that that makes it a good focus for IGF Egypt. In line with
this, I added a quotation from the Tunis Agenda at the beginning. 
 
Second, group and expand certain discussions to run in a more coherent
and structured manner. For example, there were scattered references to
privacy which I tried to consolidate in a single para. and expand a bit.

 
For those not on the Google docs list I append the statement below

Milton Mueller
Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
XS4All Professor, Delft University of Technology
------------------------------
Internet Governance Project:
http://internetgovernance.org


 
IGC's input -1 to the synthesis paper for IGF, Hyderabad.

'Rights and the Internet' as the over-arching theme for IGF-4 in Egypt 

The Tunis Agenda (para. 42) invoked human rights when it reaffirmed a
global "commitment to the freedom to seek, receive, impart and use
information" and affirmed that "measures undertaken to ensure Internet
stability and security, to fight cybercrime and to counter spam, must
protect and respect the provisions for privacy and freedom of expression
as contained in the relevant parts of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and the Geneva Declaration of Principles." However, little follow
up work has been done to enact these commitments to basic human rights
in Internet governance. 

The Internet Governance Caucus strongly recommends that 'Rights and the
Internet' be made the overarching theme for IGF-4 in Egypt, and that the
IGF-4's program be framed by the goal of developing a rights-based
discourse in the area of Internet Governance. The Caucus has already
expressed support for the letter on this subject which was sent to the
MAG by the Dynamic Coalition on an Internet Bill of Rights. The IGC
offers the IGF assistance in helping to shape such a discourse at the
IGF meetings, and specifically to help make 'Rights and the Internet' an
overarching theme for IGF-4 in Egypt.  

A complex new emerging ecology of rights and the internet

 One important purpose of a discourse on rights should be to clarify and
reach greater consensus on how Internet rights are defined, how they
relate to pre-existing definitions of human rights, and which ones need
to be internationally recognized and strengthened. There are currently
basic philosophical differences, even among civil society actors, over
what constitutes a right and whether human rights inhere only in
individuals or can also be assigned to collectivities. 




The openness and diversity of the internet are underpinned by widely
recognized (but still imperfectly enforced) basic human rights: the
individual right to freedom of expression and to privacy. To some,
conceptions of rights and the internet may also extend to the area of
positive and collective rights - for instance a right to Internet
access, or a right of cultural expression - including the right to have
an Internet in ones own language, which can inform the important IGF
thematic area of cultural diversity. Others contest these positive and
collective claims, viewing them as worthy policy goals but not as
rights.

Many important internet policy areas, like network neutrality, are being
framed in terms of rights, such as a right to access and share
information, or as an extension of freedom of expression itself. The
right of the public to access government-produced information presents
itself in a wholly new manner in a digital environment, where
information is often publicly sharable at little or no extra cost.
Positive acts of withholding digital public information from citizens in
fact can be looked upon as a form of censorship. All of these
rights-based conceptions may be included in the IGF openness theme area.
Other rights such as the right of association and the right to political
participation may have important new implications in the internet age,
including the right to participate in the shaping of globally applicable
internet policies. 

While the internet opens unprecedented economic, social and political
opportunities in many areas, many fear that it may at the same time be
further widening economic, social and political divides. It is for this
reason that development has been a central theme for the IGF meetings to
date. In this new, more global and digital context it might be useful to
explore what the term "right to development" means. 

With respect to privacy rights, corporations and governments are
increasingly able to extend digital tentacles into people's homes and
personal devices, in manners invisible to consumers and
citizens.Consumers of digital products thus face new challenges
including the right
<http://docs.google.com/RawDocContents?docID=dcskr5r9_7n2dnxhs&justBody=
false&revision=_latest&timestamp=1220550114112&editMode=true&strip=true#
sdfootnote3sym> to know and completely 'own' the products and services
they pay for. Technological measures to monitor and control user
behavior on the internet is becoming increasingly sophisticated, and
often outrun public policies and traditional concepts of what rights
users have.

While property rights are of considerable importance, their
applicability and mutations in the the digital environment have led to
widespread political contention over the proper scope of copyrights,
trademarks and patents. In fact, intellectual property is emerging as a
primary area of socio-economic conflict in the information society.  The
IGF can explore issues surrounding the public interest principles which
underpin IPR alongside the concept of a right to access knowledge in the
digital space. It can also explore how individuals' property right to
own, build, test, and use consumer electronics, computers and other
forms of equipment can be reconciled with the regulation of technical
circumvention to protect copyrights.  

 

We recognize that while it is relatively easy to articulate and claim
"rights" it is much more difficult to implement and enforce them. We
also recognize that rights claims can sometimes conflict or compete with
each other. For example, a claim that there is a "right to Internet
access" may imply an obligation on states to fund and provide such
access, but it is likely that if states are responsible for supplying
internet access that there will also be strong pressures on them to
exert controls over what content users can access using public funds and
facilities.  There can also be uncertainty about the proper application
of a rights claim to a factual situation. The change in the technical
methods of communication often undermines pre-existing understandings of
how to apply legal categories. 

 

These complexities, however, only strengthen the case for using the IGF
to explicitly discuss and debate these problems. There is no other
global forum where such issues can be raised and explored in a
non-binding context. 




Internet governance has up to this time largely been founded in
technical principles and, increasingly, on the internet's functionality
as a giant global marketplace. With the internet becoming  increasingly
central to many social and political institutions, an alternative
foundation and conceptual framework for IG can be explored. It is the
view of the IG Caucus that a right-based framework will be may be
appropriate for this purpose. 

 It is the Caucus' view that the IGF is the forum best suited to take up
this task. This process should start at the IGF Hyderabad, where
workshops on rights issues are being planned.  These issues will also
hopefully figure prominently in the main sessions. The IGC fully expects
that these discussions will help the IGF work towards developing 'Rights
and the Internet' as the over-arching theme of the IGF-4 in Egypt. 

 

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