[governance] RE: On the process of proposing workshop themes

Divina MEIGS divina.meigs at orange.fr
Sun Mar 29 05:18:05 EDT 2009


Hi all

Thank you Lisa and others for picking the thread of a human-rights based
internet. When I reset the theme on the table, I meant it the way you
understood it, Lisa, which is to say in relation to the Universal
Declaration. 

A lot of groups and entities are trying to see how the 30 articles apply or
can be adapted to internet and other online media, in an ethical
perspective. I can refer you to the charter by APC on the civil society
side, a model in its genre, but also to UN regional meetings, in Santo
Domingo or in Strasbourg. Work is being currently done at the programme
Information For All (IFAP) at Unesco along these lines ... I am personnally
doing research on how young people perceive and apply (or not) these
rights... The important thing is that the discussion should be a
multi-stakeholder one, even when considering the perspective of governments
... And IGF is one of the interesting plateforms for this open, and if need
be, contradictory debate, it seems to me.

So I would strongly support a major proposal from researchers and civil
society, for the theme of a human-rights based governance of internet, so as
to fit the IGF agenda.  The nicety of the debates, the clarifications that
are being discussed on this list and others would then be aired more widely
and everybody would benefit from such an open discussion. In the current
context of crisis, this could be  a unique opportunity for dealing with
ethics, social justice and a people-centered future for the internet. I
deeply sense  the clock of the IGF  ticking away...


Best
Divina Frau-Meigs
   


Le 29/03/09 3:37, « Lisa Horner » <lisa at global-partners.co.uk> a écrit :

> 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 Milton¹s rationale for putting up themes (as stated
>> below) because they seem essential even though one is not in the best
>> position to organize them.
>> 
>> I¹ll suggest three, picking up on my memory from past exchanges, and because
>> they haven¹t re-emerged:
>>         1) the future of labour in internet governance. That¹s a theme that
>> hasn¹t 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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> 
> 
> 
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