[governance] Inputs for synthesis paper

Fri Sep 5 09:53:47 EDT 2008

hi milton, all

in terms of defining rights.. just to remind (and 
apologies if i sound like a broken record) that 
several groups now have attempted to do this 
including APC, the BOR coalition, global 
partners, UNESCO, the work of the WSIS CS Human 
Rights caucus and the CRIS campaign

so let's build on the collective work done this past 10  years or so

if i recall correctly (lisa - please correct me 
if i'm wrong) - global partners put together a 
document that mapped such documents.. it might be 
useful to refer to that (and update if necessary) in this work

i think we have a good chance of influencing the 
cairo agenda if we build this work carefully and 
inclusively (not to suggest we aren't already) over the next 6-12 months

karen

At 19:51 04/09/2008, Milton L Mueller wrote:
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>
>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>http://internetgovernance.org
>
>
>IGCs 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-4s 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 peoples 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 internets 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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