[governance] Draft Statement re UN Human Rights Council

[McTim]

I don't think we can speak for the entire IGF.

I think it can be cut down by about 50%.  We don't need to reference
evangelists or  the SOPA/PIPA bills for example.

-- 
Cheers,

McTim
"A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
route indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel


On 2/26/12, Paul Lehto <lehto.paul at gmail.com> wrote:
> Below is a brief statement on "Human Rights on the Internet".  I have to go
> offline for two and a half hours but then will be back online in case
> anyone has comments, questions or additions to the text below.  At that
> point I would hope to make some changes if any are suggested, then have it
> posted for comment.    In general, I didn't like the title "Human Rights on
> the Internet" because it makes as little sense to me as raising the
> question of human rights on the mountains or in the valleys, or on the
> oceans, etc.  Human rights exist everywhere, including the internet.  The
> question is the constant need to keep awareness of them high
>
> *Human Rights on the Internet *
>
> Rights without borders – also known as human rights – have met their
> technological twin in the form of the global Internet, a technology without
> borders.
>
> The open architecture of the Internet facilitates and enhances many
> pre-existing human rights, including but not limited to rights of free
> expression, rights of information, petition, association and assembly,
> creative rights, and the right to earn a livelihood and contribute to the
> culture of society.  Internet technology and design choices simultaneously
> extends human interaction in multiple directions regardless of borders, at
> a far lower cost, and on a more democratic basis than previously imaginable.
>
> This powerful symbiosis between natural birthrights and the nature of the
> Internet as a rights-enhancing technology has caused discourse about the
> Internet to incorporate many lofty attributes that are further fueled by
> already being partially realized, causing (among other things) thought
> leaders regarding the Internet to sometimes be referred to as
> “evangelists.”  Generally speaking, these rights-enhancing aspects have
> caused the Internet to reach the loftiest planes of human hope, joining
> democracy and religion at the level of promising “a more abundant life” for
> all, without the prominent downsides often associated with actual some
> implementations of government and religion.
>
> If the Internet, as a network of networks, is a great force for human
> flourishing, and if humans have the inborn desire to flourish under
> conditions of self-determination, the most powerful question to ask
> concerning rights on the Internet is not so much where these rights arise
> from, or how they may be further enforced in ancient courts, but where any
> claimed “right” to interfere with the freedom of the Internet arises from,
> and how such a right of interference can be legitimately asserted and
> enforced.  Given that the very nature of the Internet is to facilitate
> behaviors often called rights and freedoms, and given that the Internet as
> a whole is owner-less and international, how can any business, government,
> or person both obtain a right to interfere with the freedom of the
> Internet, and also legitimately enforce that right?  In this light, any
> lack of clarity deemed to exist by some regarding where human rights “come
> from” pales in comparison to the difficulties of coherently positing and
> persuading others of a right to interfere with the freedom of others on the
> Internet.  To the extent such interference becomes known publicly, it will
> be highly likely to suffer the same fate as SOPA and PIPA legislation
> recently did, because any such right to interfere with inherent human
> rights and freedom is far more difficult to successfully theorize and
> explain than the human rights we all want for ourselves, but may or may not
> extend to all others equally.
>
> Access to the full benefits and promise of the Internet can be interfered
> with or impeded at numerous levels and by numerous actors, including
> businesses, governments, individuals, engineers, web designers,
> administrators.    Arguably, businesses are in the position to make more
> choices that actually or potentially impair or impede human rights on the
> Internet than government. Some “governmental” interference with the
> Internet is driven by business concern lobbying, such that much
> “governmental” interference can be attributed to businesses.   Regardless
> of the relative amounts of responsibility one may assess to each, it is
> extremely clear that both governments and businesses can and are acting in
> ways that interfere with the Internet, either by failing to fully
> understand the Internet, or by pursuing narrow interests over the public
> interest as a whole.   Any such government or business that acts to impair
> or impede the global freedom of the Internet should not be heard to claim
> that they “have the Internet” (in the case of a nation that filters or
> otherwise interferes) or that they “support the Internet” (in the case of a
> business acting in fact to impede access to the full Internet, or censor
> content, etc.)
>
> Although Internet companies are obliged to abide by national legal rules of
> host countries, they are even more obliged to follow global human rights
> laws like freedom of expression than those national laws. Claims that
> domestic laws require business cooperation with censorship, etc., should be
> met with the assertion of higher laws and norms than those of a single
> country.
>
> In the general context of market freedom, the development of new
> technologies will always precede the question of the extent of their
> regulation.  Yet, as human activity in the technology expands, some form of
> regulation is inevitable, just as it is impossible to imagine cities
> without any regulation, even though lack of regulation is possible in the
> countryside or wilderness.   However, the pace of innovation and expansion
> on the Internet guarantees that no regulator can sufficiently keep pace.
> This requires deep commitment to human rights on the part of engineers and
> others who are creating the Internet in real time.
>
> The pre-existing duty of all nations to support the diffusion of education
> concerning human rights takes on a special urgency and importance in the
> context of the Internet, because important structural and design decisions
> regarding the Internet will always continue to be made by Internet
> engineers and administrators at a speed and at a point in time where it is
> impossible for detailed guidance or best practices to exist. In direct
> effect, the “governance” of the Internet, in significant part, takes place
> in real time and in diverse places, often by engineers and programmers
> making design decisions, making a decentralized awareness and knowledge of
> human rights norms by people working on the Internet especially critical to
> preventing serious human rights issues from emerging. Knowledge about human
> rights, like the Internet itself, is a form of power that not only can be
> decentralized, but must be decentralized, given the diffuse points of
> potential impact on rights on the Internet, and the lack of any centralized
> ownership or control that can legitimately affect the whole.
>
> Therefore, the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) declares that the Internet
> is, and by rights ought to be, a place for the full expression of human
> freedoms and equality, the IGF condemns violations of human rights on the
> Internet and wherever they may occur, and the IGF calls upon the United
> Nations and all people to support the utmost diffusion of education about
> human rights so that developers, engineers, administrators and users of the
> Internet can maximize for all the value of the Internet as an enhancement
> of the human experience, making ever more real the human flourishing that
> is both the reality and the promise of the Internet.
>

-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t