[governance] Separate statement on themes for Vilnius

[Jeremy Malcolm]

On 04/02/2010, at 4:27 PM, William Drake wrote:

> As to the others, there might be some risk that the more main sessions we propose, the less focused consideration there will be of any one proposal.  I don't have enough sense of MAG's dynamics to judge, but hope not.  In any even there are sizable contingents supporting rights and NN, however defined, so I don't see how we could make everyone happy and get this done quickly without proposing all three using the previously consensual language.

This seems sensible, yes, BUT with some tweaking to the Human Rights language to make it a main session theme rather than an over-arching theme - I suggest this, based closely on the previously-agreed text I posted earlier (only the first paragraph has changed):

The Internet Governance Caucus strongly recommends that 'Rights and the Internet' be made a session theme for IGF-5 in Vilnius, which would explore a rights-based discourse in the area of Internet Governance.

We recognize that while it is relatively easy to articulate and claim “rights” it is much more difficult to agree on, implement and enforce them. We also recognize that rights claims can sometimes conflict or compete with each other. 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 Internet’s 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 rights-based framework will be appropriate for this purpose, and that the IGF is the forum best suited to take up this task.

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Jeremy Malcolm
Project Coordinator
Consumers International
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