[governance] Inputs for synthesis paper

Thu Sep 4 05:05:26 EDT 2008

Milton and all,

  Milton, after reading your "Adjustments" closely several times,
I personally found them very good.  I wouldn't change a single
word in fact.  Very well done, and thank you!  >:)

  I would from this now start to get down to specific language
in respect to specific definitions for what those "Rights" should
be.  Any objections?

Milton L Mueller wrote:

>
> 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, <?xml:namespace
> prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
> />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
> ofglobally 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 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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