Hi Rikke, Meryem and Wolfgang

(Meryem – please could you forward this to Rikke as I don’t have her email address to hand).

I hope you’re all well and had a safe journey back from Egypt.  I’ve just been talking to Max, and we thought it would be good to pick up on the Charter process after our conversations in Sharm. 

Firstly, thanks for agreeing to be our human rights experts and revise the charter.  There are a few points I think we need to finalise so we can move forward….

1)      Timings

I think we agreed on the following timescale:

-          Accept further edits and comments on the wiki until  Christmas (shall we say Monday January 3^rd, or maybe you’d like to use the quiet time between xmas and new year?)

-          Expert committee works on the text until March 2010….

We were then discussing whether it would be possible to present the draft to the IRP coalition for comments at this stage, or whether we’d need to get input from other experts first. 

Eurodig is being held at the end of March this year, and it would be a great opportunity to hold a coalition meeting to discuss the draft text.  We could also consider presenting it to the wider Eurodig at that stage for input in order to generate interest and a wider sense of ownership.  Do you think you would (a) be able to get input from other experts by that stage or (b) do it in parallel with/after the Eurodig meetings?

After that, I think we agreed to have a first version ready for the end of May?

2)      Structure

We were discussing in Egypt whether to keep the Charter in 2 sections, or whether to try and incorporate the principles into the rights section.  I personally think that they are two separate things, and that trying to incorporate implementation principles (e.g. what policies do we need to build an internet that supports the human rights defined in the first section) into the rights section will result in repetition (e.g. some version of “network neutrality” may be necessary to protect free expression, privacy and free association, as well as creating optimal conditions for economic, social and cultural rights).

However, I’d personally be happy for you to try for the matrix approach that Meryem was suggesting.  It may well work out better, and it would obviously be good for you to have the scope to play around with the structure and come up with something that works well.  But would it be possible to do it in such a way so as to return to the original structure if we need to?  I.e. still thinking in terms of (a) How do universal human rights translate in the internet age.  What are our rights and freedoms that should be protected.  And (b) what are the “implementation policy principles” across the different “layers” of the internet environment that would foster an internet that supports rather than undermines these rights.

Alternatively, it’d also be fine for you to focus on the first section of rights to start with.  We could then move on to look at the principles later, possibly through a consultation process with industry people.  We could stick with the FoE Project Principles for now to form the basis for section (b), and then move on to develop them and widen out ownership of them by different stakeholders.  They were defined through a negotiation process between an albeit small group of people, and so do have some legitimacy.

3)      Including experts from the global south

I’m not sure where we are with this.  Do you have ideas of HR experts who might be interested in participating?  I have a possible contact in Argentina, and could try and think of others….

Please let us know what you think on all of this.  And thanks again for agreeing to do the work – it’ll make a huge difference.

All the best,

Lisa and Max

___________________________________________________________

Lisa Horner

Head of Research & Policy  Global Partners and Associates

338 City Road, London, EC1V 2PY, UK

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lisa@global-partners.co.uk  www.global-partners.co.uk