[governance] Statement by IGC supporting rights and principles

[William Drake]

Hi

On Sep 8, 2009, at 6:05 AM, McTim wrote:

> Hi Ginger,
>
> On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 11:12 PM, Ginger Paque<gpaque at gmail.com> wrote:
>> McTim, could you explain why you say:
>
> sure
> <snip>
>>
>> DRAFT STATEMENT - RIGHTS AND PRINCIPLES
>>
>> The Caucus [and undersigned DCs] repeat their request that the  
>> programme for
>> IGF-4 in Egypt gives the required attention to human rights.  The  
>> WSIS
>> Declaration and Tunis Agenda reaffirmed the centrality of human  
>> rights in
>> the information society, but human rights and associated principles  
>> have
>> received very little attention at the IGF so far.  This is  
>> problematic as:
>> •       Fundamental human right such as the rights to freedom of  
>> expression,
>> privacy and education are threatened by current internet governance
>> processes and practice.
>
> It's overly broad.  It paints ALL IG processes as threatening, when in
> fact, most of them are absolutely not.
>
> It's a bit strident as well, politically not wise, these governments
> are going to dismiss this out of hand.   If we are concerned about
> censorship and filtering, then we should state that specifically.
>
> AFAIAC, this para needs to go, or be rewritten.

How about this?

  Fundamental human right such as the rights to freedom of expression,
privacy and education are threatened by the policies and practices  
many governments
are pursuing at the national level.

This is the focus of Ginger's examples, not global Internet  
governance.   Of course, one could make the case that some instances  
of the latter also restrict internationally recognized rights, e.g.  
WHOIS, but that'd require some nuance and specificity that it might be  
difficult to get quick agreement on.

Bill____________________________________________________________
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