Internet Rights and Principles Coalition

Committed to making Internet work for human rights

IRPC Steering Committee Meetings 2022

Meeting Notes IRPC Steering Committee  

(Meeting I – 24.3.2022 and Meeting II – 19.5.2022)

Meeting I 

24.03.22

Agenda:

Part I

  1. Introductions
  2. About the IRPC and updates
  3. 2021 achievement and reports
  4. 2022 updates (MAG Meeting, EuroDIG, DC Meeting)

Part II

  1. IRPC in 2022
  2. Current projects and activities 
  3. Main Priorities
    1. Charter articles / related issues
    1. Participation in Main IG Events 
    1. Reaching out to the wider IGF community and other groups
  4. IRPC admin updates 
  • AOB

The IRPC Steering Committee welcomed the new members and the new co-chair and followed by quick look at the activities of the IRPC SC in 2021, including the IRPC participation at the IGF2021 in Poland. The Steering Committee also looked at recent activities and updates from the MAG meeting, DC Coordination group and the planned activities at the EuroDIG 2022 in Trieste.

IRPC SC focus on in 2022

The SC discussed the main issues and articles of the Charter to focus on during the current year.  

There was strong support to focus on Article 5 (Freedom of Expression and information on the Internet), Article 18 (Right to legal remedy and fair trial) and Article 19 (Right to appropriate social and international order for the internet). 

The SC strong supported revisiting the rights of refugees and displaced people in the online environment following previous discussions: WS 10: Confronting the digital divide (2) – Refugees, human rights and Internet access, Human Rights Online: What has Internet Governance got to do with Refugees? WS346 Refugee Rights and Emerging Technologies: Building Digital Futures for all and to look at cyber crime which is a crosscutting issue, touching upon many rights in the Charter. 

The SC will be open to addressing other issues and covering other Articles of the Charter in partnership/collaboration with others or through the prospective review of some of the provisions of the Charter. For example, Article 4 (Right to Development through the Internet) and the link to environmental sustainability that the SC has highlighted in recent years can be followed up by supporting the creation of a sister DC on Environment as suggested by the IGF secretariat. 

The IRPC Charter: Updates and translation work

  • The Nepali translation Charter is ready to print
  • The Japanese translation of the 10 Principles is ready to be formatted into the IRPC style and the translation of the Charter may follow soon
  • Underway are the Georgian and Catalan translations of the Charter
  • The Italian Charter Booklet is ready: we had a soft launch of the digital edition last June which is available in our website
  • There is a project for an accessible version of the Charter
  • There was a call for looking into the translation of the Charter into several African languages such as Swahili ( The 10 Principles is already available).

Two important points were raised in the meeting and the SC will be discussing in more depth in the next meeting as they are a good follow up to the IRPC annual meeting in Poland:

  1. What can be done to ensure that the Charter is more formally recognised

There is an ongoing discussion on the DC Coordination group on having the outputs of the DCs formally recognised as IGF outputs and to follow up with the help of other UN agencies. Last year’s MAG Chair was very open to this possibility, and this also transpired in the DCs report. It is up to all DCs to keep the pressure up to ensure that the recognition of DC outputs is formally recognised.

  • Revision of some of the provisions of the Charter

This was also discussed at the last IRPC annual meeting. In IGF19 in Berlin, a suggestion was made to review article 4. This is a project that we will hopefully be able to do soon. It has been suggested that rather than rewriting the Charter developments should be added in the form of Protocols

Planned activities in 2022

Some of the expected activities in 2022 include the IRPC participation at IGF22 and national and regional IGFs such as the EuroDIG. There was an important call for more collaborations with the NRIs. The SC local outreach work can be done through our participation/collaboration with the NRIs. The outreach efforts in the Asian and African regions have been fantastic in recent years!

IRPC SC – admin updates

The SC discussed the costs associated with the Charter project (formatting and publication of the Charters) and the maintenance of our online presence through our website.

The IRPC SC received funding from the Swiss OFCOM in 2019 which used the formatting and reprinting of the Charter in all languages available plus the launch of the French version of the Charter booklet in time of the IGF2019 in Berlin. The funding also allowed the redesign and the migration of the IRPC website as part of the IRPC’s commitment to environmental sustainability. There is some remaining funding  (€1,848) to be used on further publications.

The SC discussed the possibility of an accessibility audit of the website very soon.

Meeting II

19.05.22

Agenda

  • Welcome
  • IGF Updates & Proposals Brainstorm 
  • Other updates 
  • NRIs participation (EuroDIG, etc)
  • Accessibility audit and training
  • AOB

IRPC Participation at the IGF2022

The SC looked into the most recent updates from the IGF in preparation for the IGF2022 in Ethiopia followed by a discussion on IRPC participation at this year’s IGF. The SC agreed that this year’s session proposals should be in line with the IRPC focus this year and address issues that are relevant to the local/regional communities: a few proposals gathered support covering issues of accessibility, a free and open internet, content moderation and the protection of the rights and freedoms of refugees and displaced people in the online environment.m

Members of the SC agreed to work on those proposals and to share the draft proposals with the IRPC list for further agreement / input.

The SC also discussed the possibility of attending the IGF on site and only a couple of members will be able to attend in Ethiopia. Considering the low numbers of SC members onsite, the IRPC agreed to hold its application for a village booth since it requires constant presence on the booth, plus organising all the logistics (printing, transport, display and storage of the Charter).

Updates in recent and upcoming activities

The SC looked on recent activities such as the IRPC participation at the YOUthDIG webinar and shared updates on the IRPC participation in EuroDIG’s Workshop 1 in Trieste. It also confirmed the IRPC participation at the Council of Europe CDMSI hybrid Meeting on June 1-2.

Accessibility audit

News on the recent accessibility audit and report were also shared followed by a discussion on possibility accessibility training dates in July. 

AOB

The SC welcomed the idea of a monthly newsletter to keep the list updated on recent and and upcoming activities from the IRPC SC as well as the IGF community and beyond. 

IRPC Steering Committee Meetings 2022
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