Hi Sivasubramanian and all
I realise a fairly long thread grew on this before I had a chance to reply, but thought I should answer your question about what I meant...
Mary's clarification on different legal definitions of rights was very useful, and I should have made clear that I was talking about human rights as defined in the Universal Declaration, rather than a state's sovereign rights. I'm currently working (with others) to explore whether talking about values and policy principles is a useful way forwards in trying to develop the ethical dimensions of internet governance. There seems to be agreement amongst many people in this field that we don't need to develop new human rights specifically for the internet; rather, the rights defined in the UDHR need to be applied to this new and continually evolving environment.
So, we're interested in looking at whether different stakeholders can agree on certain values that they think should underpin internet governance and use, such as open access to information and culture/participatory governance/accessibility. These values are rooted in the existing human rights framework. If a number of stakeholders can agree that certain values are important, what exact issues need to be addressed to realise those values? What policy principles can help to do this, both general and specific? In other words, how can we practically move on from talking about human rights on the internet to actually upholding them, based on multi-stakeholder collaboration? I think the GNI is an important initiative in this respect, and we're looking at ways of developing this kind of approach.
So - in answer to your question - we're not thinking in terms of enacting new laws, but rather about developing new approaches to the issues, rooted in the overall mission of expanding human rights. Some government stakeholders might argue they have a moral right to filter the internet, but others might believe in core values of openness. I saw that you proposed a workshop or discussion on values for the internet on this list - I suspect we're thinking along similar lines!
I think an important first step forwards is to understand what different people understand by the terms "rights" and "principles", as the debate in this thread has illustrated! Max Senges and I are currently looking into this through a research project. I hope the event on rights and principles in Rome this summer will also help move the discussion and work on, along with other work being done under the umbrella of the "internet rights and principles" dynamic coalition.
All the best,
Lisa
________________________________
From: Sivasubramanian Muthusamy [mailto:isolatedn at gmail.com]
Sent: Wed 25/03/2009 18:12
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Lisa Horner
Subject: Re: [governance] RE: On the process of proposing workshop themes
Hello Lisa Horner,
Perhaps the workshop could address aspects related to the Rights of Governments, apart from focussing on the Rights of the Users? Governments of the world might want to argue that they have a right to demand certain content removed - You Tube has faced such rights based requests in the recent past and now.
Governments would like to argue that they have a moral right to filter, and to censor inappropriate content ????
What is this "rights-based values and principles for internet governance" any way? Define rights, principles and then enact laws according to the agreed values and principles ???
Sivasubramanian Muthusamy
India.
On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 6:58 PM, Lisa Horner <lisa at global-partners.co.uk> wrote:
Hi Divina and all
Just a quick note to say that I intend to submit a workshop proposal on "rights and the internet" issues, focussing on the approach of building discussion and agreement around rights-based values and principles for internet governance. I'm doing some work on this this year in association with other groups, and the workshop would be a way of feeding back on progress and continuing the debate from last year's 'mainstreaming rights' workshop. Thoughts/comments/collaboration welcome!
Thanks,
Lisa Horner
________________________________
From: Divina MEIGS [mailto:divina.meigs at orange.fr]
Sent: Wed 25/03/2009 08:46
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; mueller at syr.edu
Cc: Muehlberg, Annette; pimienta at funredes.org
Subject: Re: [governance] RE: On the process of proposing workshop themes
Dear all
I agree very much on Milton's rationale for putting up themes (as stated below) because they seem essential even though one is not in the best position to organize them.
I'll suggest three, picking up on my memory from past exchanges, and because they haven't re-emerged:
1) the future of labour in internet governance. That's a theme that hasn't emerged and yet it is central to policy-making, not to mention to labour itself. There are different scenarii around cognitive capitalism, individual entrepreneurship, labor value vs. knowledge value... And it is especially timely with the current crisis... But i am not an economist and i am not a trade unionist....
2) the internet rights or a human rights based internet issue... That remains undecided and in spite of much discussion it seems to have disappeared...
3) media and information literacy/education in the information society is one close to my heart. It is urgent to propose and develop global policies on the theme, in connection with intellectual property rights, but also open educational ressources on line, the future of universities, sustainable development....
Hoping some of you will continue the thread,...
Divina Frau-Meigs
Le 24/03/09 21:44, « Milton L Mueller » <mueller at syr.edu> a écrit :
the proposal to call for expressions of interest on themes rather than full-fledged workshop proposals at that stage (they will naturally come later). It has the benefit of sensing the level of interest on various themes but also allows people who do not intend to organize a workshop themselves to indicate that they think a specific topic should be addressed. This is what I did last year by putting an early placeholder in favor of a workshop on "dimensions of cybersecurity" while indicating that I did not intend to organize it myself.
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