[governance] Inputs for synthesis paper

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 05/09/2008, at 3:42 PM, Parminder wrote:

> It is important to recognize that there are two important and  
> different contestations here. One, whether there is at all a  
> category of positive and collective rights in any case whatsoever.  
> My personal view is that it is a very small minority among the IGC  
> membership that really contests the very validity of the category of  
> positive and collective rights. I invite members’ comments on this  
> statement. Accordingly, I don’t think an IGC statement should go out  
> casting doubts on the very validity of these categories of rights. I  
> would therefore want all corresponding parts of the statement removed.

Only if they can be removed without suggesting the reverse: that there  
is accord within civil society about the existence of positive and  
collective rights.  Although I don't agree that it is a "very small  
minority" who take issue with over-expansive conceptions of rights, I  
do agree that it should not be a central theme of our submission.  In  
this regard I think that your language, by side-stepping this  
disagreement, is basically unobjectionable.

> This para clearly makes out a strong case against ‘right to the  
> Internet’ and is obviously not acceptable to those who speak for it.  
> I would delete the whole para.

I agree, not so much because I find anything to disagree with in it,  
but more because I don't think it sends a useful message.

> I also have problem with the new opening para that you propose.
> “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.”
>
If this paragraph is to be amended I would prefer that rather than  
referring to the "right to development" (that has been disputed on  
this list and is not recognised in hard international law), we simply  
add something like ", let alone any of the other fundamental human  
rights referenced in the opening of the Geneva Declaration".

-- 
Jeremy Malcolm LLB (Hons) B Com
Internet and Open Source lawyer, IT consultant, actor
host -t NAPTR 1.0.8.0.3.1.2.9.8.1.6.e164.org|awk -F! '{print $3}'

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