[governance] Egypt and Internet Governance

Sun Jan 30 16:33:13 EST 2011

In the event that the Internet Access were to be declared a Human Right,
this will be interesting because it could be viewed as a civil right, a
political right, a social right, a cultural right or maybe even an economic
right, making it truly universal or is it not. Either way, it makes Internet
Right an excellent candidate for the debate between Universalism and
Cultural Relativism.

For LDCs who barely have access to water, reliable energy grids, and poor
hospitalisation, lack of educational facilities, their governments would
struggle with dispensing financial resources to laying out of infrastructure
(ICT) and would be torn between directing it elsewhere. This of course
excludes all the political forces and internal lobbying and discretion of
the Government that would cause the flow of those resources to be channeled
to their prioritisation list rather than a list that someone from outside
those LDCs dictates to LDCs.

Why I think the Internet as a Human Right will not succeed is that there are
too many countries who have issues with Access and unless the World can
guarantee the flow of financial resources that would fund the necessary
infrastructure that would give Internet Access as a Human Right, then this
would not be viable. Even if the world through (UN or WB or IMF etc) were to
build the infrastructure that would enable human right access, these LDCs
would be indebted in one way or another.

This is why I would agree with Parminder's argument for an independent
international organisation that should regulate the Internet and not one
which would be subject to any one government's control.

Sala
On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 9:58 AM, Michael Gurstein <gurstein at gmail.com>wrote:

> Lee,
>
> I tend to agree with you as below but I would leave it to others more
> knowledgeable on that document than myself to comment specifically.  But I
> also think that it is important to situate the discussions at the IGF in
> real world contexts especially since the real world is inceasingly
> impinging
> on those discussions in such an active and volatile way.
>
> M
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lee W McKnight [mailto:lmcknigh at syr.edu]
> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 11:35 AM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Michael Gurstein
> Subject: RE: [governance] Egypt and Internet Governance
>
>
> Michael,
>
> I don't recall off-hand every last paragraph of the draft Charter of
> Internet Rights  under discussion on the Internet Rights and Principles
> list...but wouldn't something along the lines you suggest be most easily
> promoted through that, perhaps by adding an additional paragraph or clause
> if needed?
>
> Which was already a topic for discussion at the next IGF right...
>
> Lee
> ________________________________________
> From: governance-request at lists.cpsr.org [governance-request at lists.cpsr.org
> ]
> On Behalf Of Michael Gurstein [gurstein at gmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 11:09 AM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: RE: [governance] Egypt and Internet Governance
>
> I think that we need to see these as long term processes with multiple
> actors, influences, potential outcomes and so on.
>
> But there would clearly seem to be a need for a statement of
> principles/code
> of conduct with respect to access to/the opportunity to use the means of
> communication.  That there will be opposition to such is hardly relevent to
> the articulation and civil society agitation in support of such a set of
> principles/code.
>
> That governments or whoever would insist that there were various kinds of
> clauses to ensure their ultimate authority in these areas is similarly
> irrelevant since as with Human Rights agreements/codes their presence acts
> as some sort of standard against which breaches can be measured and
> responded to and governments (and the private sector) can be held
> accountable.
>
> It is hard to see what in the area of Global Internet Governance could be
> of
> more importance than the setting in place of a process for the formulation
> and ratification of such an agreement.
>
> Mike
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: governance-request at lists.cpsr.org
> [mailto:governance-request at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf Of Norbert Bollow
> Sent: Sunday, January 30, 2011 4:27 AM
> To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
> Subject: Re: [governance] Egypt and Internet Governance
>
>
> > In message <20110130113619.A00C915C195 at quill.bollow.ch>, at 12:36:19
> > on Sun, 30 Jan 2011, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> writes
> >
> > >I strongly support pushing for a "code of conduct" of some kind that
> > >incorporates this principle.
> >
> > Who drafts it, who signs up, and who polices it?
>
> It could be drafted by some kind of "dynamic coalition" process in the IGF
> context.
>
> Unless some countries are interested in creating a formal international
> treaty with some kind of enforcement provisions, it would be policed only
> to
> the extent that of course nothing will stop the legislature of any country
> from adding the principles of the "code of conduct" to the national laws.
>
> But even if this doesn't happen in any single country, even if following
> the
> "code of conduct" remains, from a legal perspective, entirely voluntary, I
> would expect that the document could still have a very significant
> practical
> impact.
>
> Just like many of IETF's RFCs have very significant practical impact even
> without them having been formally adopted by any national legislature, or
> even by any standardization organization with the kind of formal
> international recognition that e.g. ISO has. And there's definitely to
> "internet police" to enforce the RFCs.
>
> Greetings,
> Norbert ____________________________________________________________
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