Internet Rights and Principles Coalition

Committed to making Internet work for human rights

Author : Minda Moreira

IGF2014 Report: WS83 – Human Rights for the Internet : From Principles to Action

This session, the first of four (co-) organized by the Internet Rights and Principles Coalition (IRPC) brings together representatives from initiatives that (i) link their work in this area to the IRPC Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet, and (ii) those initiatives that underpin and develop the objectives and content of the IRPC Charter. All participants have contributed to this wider historic recognition of the formative role that international human rights law and norms play in the future of global Internet governance. It is also a workshop that is taking place in the “post-Snowden” context of Internet governance decision-making, which throws up a number of pressing issues around inclusiveness and participation, rule of law, jurisdiction, technical standards, and the ongoing need to educate and raise awareness about rights and fundamental freedoms in the online world.

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IGF 2014 Report: WS146 Anonymity by Design: Protecting While Connecting

The panel presented a series of case studies and problematics around the value and necessity of anonymous communication online. Panelists from a broad cross-section of multi-stakeholders contributed various perspectives that called for evidence-based policy reform to establish and protect the right of anonymous online communication.

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UNESCO INTERNET CONFERENCE, 3-4 March 2015

Session 9: Freedom of Expression and Privacy, 4 March 2015; 9.30-10.50am.

This report hopefully captures the main themes and points for further discussion. An almost live transcript of the session can be found on the live blog link at Internet Rights and Principles Coalition website.
This panel considered the legal, technical, and political practicalities that emerge when the right to privacy and freedom of information are considered as interrelated; it discussed the differences in stakes, levels of action and of analysis at this intersection of fundamental freedoms online alongside their consequences in practical terms for ordinary internet users, content producers on the web, activists, and media professionals.

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Connecting the Dots | United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNESCO will organize from 3 – 4 March 2015, an international multistakeholder conference to discuss the first draft of the Comprehensive Study on Internet-related issues. This major global study will capture and explore global perspectives on the new and emerging trends that are shaping the Internet space and our future. The meeting will propose recommendations for responses to Internet-related issues in UNESCO’s fields of competence.

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Defending Human Rights in a Digital Age – 26 February | Radical Media Forum

Thursday 26th February, 5.30 – 8.00PM.
Goldsmiths College, London.
This panel addresses the human rights implications for the future of the internet as struggles over its ownership and control gather steam at the national and international level.

This event is hosted by the Media & Communications department; co-organized by the Global Media and Transnational Communications MA Program, Media Forum, and Radical Media Forum.

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Internet Rights and Principles DC: Stocktaking statement IGF 2014  

The 2014 Istanbul IGF came at one of the most significant moments in the IRPC’s contribution to IGF outcomes since the coalition began its work with the IRPC Charter of Human Rights and Principles for the Internet at the 2009 IGF meeting in Egypt. A very successful set of workshops in this week culminated with the IRPC meetings and workshops:

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Switzerland ready to quit the European Convention on Human Rights?

Some politicians in Switzerland seek popularity by proposing even to quit the European Convention on Human Rights
How this can happen in one of the most wealthiest countries and with one of the oldest constitutions in the world? An answer is populism and political extremism mixed with the tools of direct democracy. The right-wing populist party Swiss People’s Party – SVP intends to remove all obstacles introducing their legislation changes (accepted earlier by referendums) initiated by them even if human rights (the European Convention on Human Rights) would have to fall as victim to it.

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Slacktivism, clicktivism, and “real” social change

Like its corollary clicktivism, slacktivism is a term that unites entrenched technosceptics and romantic revolutionaries from a pre-Internet or, more precisely, a pre-social media age as they admonish younger generations for their lack of commitment to “real” social change or willingness to do “what it takes” to make the world around them a better place.

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PUBLIC CONSULTATION – An African Declaration of Internet Rights and Freedoms

The Internet is bringing great things to Africa profoundly changing its infrastructure, society, economy and even politics. Across the continent, there are now critical questions being asked about how the internet environment can be cultivated to best meet the social and economic development needs and goals.
Unfortunately, many political leaders across the continent seem to be learning from or replicating international worst practices in internet policy and practice and, in doing so, are harming this great opportunity.

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Combatting Online Surveillance by Simplifying the Message

By Phoebe Yu
A year after Edward Snowden revealed the scale of the NSA and GCHQ mass surveillance, the debate over citizens’ online privacy continues on.
I attended the Don’t Spy on Us Day of Action in London, a daylong symposium discussing the different facets in the debate between upholding digital rights and protecting national security.
For people of my generation who grew up with the Internet, the technology doesn’t intimidate or scare us the way it does for our parents. Back when we shared files using Napster or MySpace, we developed a crude understanding of freedom and democratization through the use of the World Wide Web.

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